#as if adults haven't been doing this since the dawn of media

[raredrop]

I like how pokemon twice in the row made a character that's just a joke about "the youngins on the internet making content" and the reaction to them both is totally different

#like I'm sure someone suffered when raihan started taking selfies but #majority of ppl seemed to instantly fall in love with him #I've seen those comp videos about ppl meeting him #vs every streamer guy wincing at iono and every vtuber girl trying to not be jealous #personally i like them both i don't care if it's ew cringe #as if adults haven't been doing this since the dawn of media #its probably bc iono is specifically a streamer and oh no THEY DO THAT #tho she's a bit more of an exaggerated vtuber persona without being on #one* #i say that bc i only have watched a handful of s #vtubers * #i didn't mean to hit enter i love mobile

[redheadgleek]

Books Read April-June

I read a lot these last few months. A bunch of them were on the shorter side, but also because I've been reading more, I'm reading faster.

I've stretched my goal to read 120 books this year (10 books per month). We'll see if I make it.

April (10 books):

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. I really struggle with reading nonfiction, so this took me several months to get through (I do much better with audiobooks for nonfiction). The first work I've read of hers, I'm really interested in seeing her poetry.

Frogs In A Pot: How one woman mentally and physically abused five men in her life - and her own daughter - to satisfy her narcissistic needs by K.D. Kinz. I already ranted about this one.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. Sci-fi meets social media culture. Ended on a cliffhanger, not sure when I'll get to the sequel.

The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur. He had some really lovely thoughts. Gone way too soon.

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens. Not quite as good as their other books (Monster of the Week and Ever After are fantastic), but still enjoyable.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. Recommended by @ckerouac. I loved it until around the last 30 pages. It just felt rushed of an ending.

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh - this was much more heavy than Hyperbole, in both content and weight (the book was a workout).

*In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. A retelling of sorts of Pinocchio (reminded me a lot of A.I. which I loved even though the critics did not). It's weird and lovely and while not exactly happy, it's wistfully hopeful.

O Lady, Speak Again by Dayna Patterson - a collection of poetry using Shakespeare's female characters as the voices. I would love an audio version.

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher. A dark, little more adult, Beauty and the Beast retelling. Very imaginative.

May (13 books):

Madison by Ngozi Ukazu. I'm not sure I should really count this, but it was a delightful little comic to close out the Check Please universe.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow. I struggled with the beginning, but there were some great little twists towards the middle.

Assassin of Reality by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. The sequel to Vita Nostra which I haven't stopped thinking about since I read it earlier this year. It was still off-balance and haunting, and I'm still left with questions. Sergey died this year, so it's uncertain if there will be another book to finish.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman. A Sleeping Beauty/Snow White retelling with some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Lots of twists in this short story.

*The Raven and The Reindeer by T. Kingfisher. Retelling of the Snow Queen. I really liked this one - I felt cold through the whole thing.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. Very creepy in world building and the horror was a slow drawn-out dawning, but it sort of fell flat in the end.

Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace Cho. A half Korean woman recalls the relationship with her mother, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was a "Everybody Reads" book club book from my library. I found the writing quite engrossing. There's a lot of controversy with it, with her brother calling the author a liar - but as he and his wife spend every moment of their free time replying to anybody who says anything positive about the book and they also have this "there isn't any racism any more!" attitudes, I've had heaps of salt with their perspective.

*Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - a Rumpelstiltskin retelling, but it weaves in several other fairy tales. This one is unique because there's about a dozen 1st person perspectives (who aren't identified, you figure them out from the context) who tell the story. Makes me want to read more of her books.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. I wanted to love this because everybody else is. And I didn't. It was okay, it just wasn't fantastic.

*Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow. Middle school novel about a kid who is the only survivor of a school shooter and then moves to the middle of nowhere to escape it all. The friendships were the best and it made me feel all the emotions.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill. Yes, May was my month of reading fairy tale retellings, this one of the Crane Wife. Weird and short. I'm looking forward to reading When Women Were Dragons.

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher by E.M. Anderson. This was a book based on that tumblr post circulating around about the chosen one being an old woman instead of a teenager. It was enjoyable, mostly, but did feel like it was trying to check off all of the diversity boxes, and the ending was rushed.

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner. Apparently it's sort of a sequel to another book. Knowing that would have helped. The undead mouse character was the best.

June: It's Pride Month! (12 books)

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond. Once a bridesmaid, forever a fake bridesmaid? Some fun characters in this one.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Read as part of my friends-recommendation challenge - I own this book and my sister has been trying to get me to read it for years. I still haven't quite decided how I feel about it. The atmosphere was deliciously Gothic.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I related a lot to this book, of figuring out who you are, and how boxes and definitions may not fit you. I wish that Becky would start writing books about college students instead of high schoolers though.

Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram. A quick read.

Loveless by Alice Oseman. I was really disappointed by this book. The characters and plot weren't well fleshed out.

*Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanne Clarke, audiobook. Shortly after this book came out (nearly 20 years ago), I started reading it and got about half way through before getting distracted and I never finished it. I started listening to this at the beginning of March. It was 32 hours long. It's such a slow developing, meandering story, and I absolutely loved it. I felt completely immersed in the world.

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun. "A Charmed Offensive" was better but it was a nice twist on the fake dating trope. Although for taking place in Portland, very little of it actually took place in Portland.

Lily and the Octopus by Steve Rowley. I loved "The Guncle" so much that I bought this when it went on sale and put away all of my other books to read it. It was ... weird. I think part of it is that I don't have a pet, but also the voice of his dog kept changing? It's magical realism, part The Life with Pi and part Moby Dick.

Scythe by Neil Shusterman. Friend-recommendation. A dark utopia and a sort of fascinating exploration about death. I'm on the waiting list for the other books of the trilogy.

*What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. Audiobook. Friend recommendation. An Asian woman explores the relationship of her abusive mother and her recovery from complex PTSD. I listened to the audiobook, and while I don't have PTSD or a history of abuse, it surprised me how much I related to her. The last chapters about love and connection were really healing to listen to.

*Above Ground by Clint Smith. Audiobook. His poetry about about parenting, but also about racism and connecting to the past. Really powerful and lyrical.

*The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I do love a Greek tragedy and this one was so good.

Currently reading:

The House Witch by Delemhach. The writing kinda sucks, but I like the idea and plot?

The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett. It's an Anne of Green Gables-inspired book about a young orphan witch who seeks out a reclusive woman as her mentor. It's utterly delightful.

The Celebrants by Steve Rowley. "The Guncle" may have been a one hit wonder for his writing for me, because I'm a couple of chapters in and I'm already annoyed.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. I've heard lots of good things about this one.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. Audiobook. I'm loving the narrator - for a while, I thought it was the actress who plays La'an on SNW as they have very similar cadences.

Next up: Book Lovers, When Women were Dragons, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Thunderhead, and A House of Good Bones. Still on my "friend recommendations for 2023" to-read list: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zavin, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, Sweet Like Jasmine by Bonnie Gray, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg.

#reading #books #book club #reading goals 2023