#books i'm reading

[groenendaelfic]

so I've finally caved to peer pressure and started reading Red, White & Royal Blue (it was all the it's so Merthur coded! posts which finally did it :P)

Four chapters in I at long last understand all the baffling Young Royals fic and fandom quirks and phrases and seeming references which always confused the shit out of me, so I guess that's something lol

On a random and completely unrelated side note, I hate when AO3 is down and if it isn't back within the next ten minutes you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next chapter of The Prince and the Barista.

#now it all makes sense #so that's where this weird insistence on calling Wille THE Prince of Sweden comes from #among other things #now back to my most favorite rom-com #the one where Hannibal takes Will to Disneyland #young royals #young royals fic #red white and royal blue #random ramblings #books i'm reading #the prince and the barista

[microcosme11]

Betraying Napoleon

Interesting book even though I'm missing a lot since my French isn't great and I don't translate every paragraph. I haven't finished the book, but I like it. The first part is a philosophical essay about why people would betray Napoleon, how inevitable it was, he even realized it, etc. The author likes and admires Napoleon while accurately describing negative aspects of his personality, such as humiliating helpful people who might start disliking him intensely.

The next part of the book is an alphabetical list of people who betrayed Napoleon and how/why they did it. Jacques Chirac is included for commemorating the anniversary of Trafalgar (wtf?), but not the anniversary of Austerlitz, because Napoleon wasn't politically correct. Author correctly notes that in two hundred years we'll still be reading about Napoleon, while Chirac is already forgotten.

One thing I like about the author's style is he throws out pithy little comments like, "It doesn't matter."

#Napoleonic books #books I'm reading

[fitveganlifts]

From Atomic Habits

#fitblr #fitness #motivation #goals #atomic habits #book #books i'm reading

[deadweight-at7am]

I keep getting books and finishing them in a day.

I recently read Slewfoot by Brom. It was very good. Has me using the word "mayhap" again. I now want to read more books about witches in Puritanical America. I'm not going to lie, I'd last 5 fucking seconds in a society like that.

I bought The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and finished it in one day. It was good, I didn't quite see the twist coming at the end. I like books like that.

I love borrowing from the library but my issue is that the library rarely has the books I want to read. I got Slewfoot by chance because I put a hold on it. I'm trying to get Verity by Coleen Hoover and some others that have been suggested but I don't listen to Booktok. I think a lot of women on Booktok just like to read smut. It's always "spicy" and then the scenes are literally Wattpad fanfic bullshit.

If anyone has any suggestions for good books that are in the mystery/suspense/horror/period drama categories I'm interested. Anything by a really good writer.

Also I will say my cat has been the best investment in the world. Do you know how much my heart leaps for joy when I see her chasing some nasty bug around my house? She has a really high prey drive so she'll try to catch and eat basically anything. I've seen her attack crickets, silverfish, etc. She's my four-legged pest control. Within minutes the cat will hunt down and attack a fly. Anything. She wants to chase and catch it. Doesn't always eat it, sometimes she does but I'm okay with that as long as it's dead. It's no wonder women labeled witches had cats, we're the smart ones.

#booktok #books i'm reading #books #personal #personal post #momblr

[everyforkedroad]

book club tag game

So many thinks to @coffeedrgn877 for thinking of me! I read an absurd amount and prefer queer/BIPOC adult romance but I'm a moody reader so things evolve:

last book i bought: Bloom Where You're Planted by Darby Baham

borrowed: I'm So Not Over You by Kosoko Jackson

was gifted: West Side Love Story by Priscilla Oliveras

gave/lent to someone: Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

started: A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

finished: A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey

gave five stars: Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera

didn’t finish: Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (audiobook - I wasn't in the right headspace for it)

–

personal recommendation (not part of the original game but I love recommending books!): For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes. What a fantastic romance featuring a transfemme MC. Also Black Love Matters edited by Jessica P. Pride if you are in a nonfiction state of mind.

Tagging @tajmutthall @pennygalleon @writingqueen456 @sywen @le-disappointment-of-vere @advocatekwlaunt and everyone else who might like to give this ago. Feel free to jump on in.

#bookclub tag game #books i've read #books i love #books i'm reading #thank you for letting me play along with you!

[millennialgrandma]

September / October Wrap Up

PLEASE LOOK PAST THE FACT THAT WE ARE NEARLY DONE WITH NOVEMBER

I started working in the office/traveling again after Labor Day and had been wondering how it would affect my fandom involvement. I guess we have our answer now - I've been gone more than I've been home lately.

I decided to combine September & October because 1) I ran out of time to do the September post, and 2) the word counts are so laughably small for both of them. I did very little reading overall, and managed to squeak out a fair amount of words written (for me) in between working on another fandom project and some personal projects. I'm desperately hoping to be more present in November (she laughs in despair).

Things I Wrote

September writing was limited to one lone Twitter drabble, which has been since cross-posted to AO3 as (never) yours, (always) mine (dramione, T, 0.5k).

October was a *bit* busier for writing. I started off strong at least, and then suddenly did not have any more time for writing. Offerings are as follows:

Chpt 1 of Presenting Miss Granger (dramione, E, 0.5k)

a good greedy girl, written for the HP Cocktober Day 1 Prompt "Dry Humping" (dramione, E, 1.5k)

can you handle this, written for the HP Cocktober Day 2 Prompt "Quidditch Locker Room" (blaise/dean, E, 1.3k)

A Storm of Desire, written for the HP Pumpkin Spice Fic Fest (dramione, E, 2.5k)

I've also been working on plotting/drafting my first MCD fic, and I'm super excited about it. I'm not sure yet when it will see the light of day, but my outline is about 2k words now and I keep plodding along and making myself weepy.

Things I Read

These are probably my weakest two months of reading in nearly 3 years, and if I think too much about it I'll cry.

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Fanfiction:

Complete: (approx. 14k words Sept / approx. 8.7k words Oct)

o o p s ! by @mightbewriting (theocissa, E, 1k)

Just a Bit by @ambpersand (panville, E, 1.6k)

When Mother's Away, The Children Play by @siriusempra (dramione, E, 1k)

Red Velvet by @siriusempra (dreomione, E, 3.3k)

Icing on the Cake by @siriusempra (dreomione, E, 7.4k)

A Substitute by @rockthecasbah (dramione, E, 2.8k)

The Pick-Up Game by @rockthecasbah (dramione, E, 5.9k)

WIPs: (approx. 49.8k words Sept / approx. 14.7k words Oct)

Kingdom Come by @inadaze22 and @jaxx-in-a-box - Chapters 2 - 7 (dramione, E, 39.9k)

In These Silent Days by @heyjude19-writing - Chapters 4-6 (dramione, E, 14.6k)

All Live To Die by @willhavetheirtrinkets - Chapters 14-16 (dramione, E, 8.8k)

Thirty-Seven Years by @mightbewriting - Chapters 1-5 (drastoria, M, 1.2k)

Things I'm Currently Reading (Heading into November)

I have a bunch of WIPs to catch up on, a pile of new recs to dive into, and I hope to start making my way through the Pumpkin Spice fics this month. I also started reading Song of Achilles on the plane at the beginning of the month. I'm absolutely enamored with it, but I haven't had a chance to pick it back up again. As I sit here typing up this post and staring down the last week of November, I can safely say my reading record looks even more appalling than the past two months 😟

#wrangling the words #fics i've read #fics i'm reading #books i'm reading #apparently i'm writing? #september wrap up #october wrap up

[avpdrecovery]

No Bad Parts, Richard C. Schwartz

#books i'm reading #no bad parts #richard c schwartz #bingo!

[coffeedrgn87]

bookclub tag game

Thanks a mill for the tag @wolfpants -- let's see if I have any interesting discoveries to divulge... 😁

last book i bought: Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat

borrowed: Oompf, absolutely can't remember, I can't part company with good books so I have a tendency not to borrow them

was gifted: Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies by The Secret Barrister

gave/lent to someone: Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman

started: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

finished: Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat

gave five stars: Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat

didn’t finish: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (still reading, thoroughly distracted by fan fiction)

--

personal recommendation (not part of the original game, simply had to slide that in here): Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

tagging @phoebe-delia @everyforkedroad @nv-md @julcheninred @ricoka @onbeinganangel @crazybutgood @thebooktopus and everyone else who might like to give this ago, entirely your decision though

#bookclub tag game #books i've read #books I love #books i'm reading #thank you for letting me share

[androgynousbirdtale]

I'm currently reading "Why Nothing Works: the Anthropology of Daily Life" by Marvin Harris, published in 1987. The first edition "America Now" was published in 1980. In the introduction, I found this gem that is 💯 valid today as it seems that this is what has happened.

It boggles the mind...

#books I'm reading #anthropology #2022 #why nothing works

[tajmutthall]

book club tag game

So many thanks to @everyforkedroad for thinking of me! Just about 2 years ago I read Captive Prince for the first time and more or less all other reading has stopped since then. But books have been part of my life for decades, so here's what I've got:

last book i bought: Sell Bigger: Unlock Repeat Business By Transforming How You Communicate --not my usual thing by far, but a friend wrote it. It's not fiction.

borrowed: The Shirley Letters edited by Marlene Smith-Baranzini (great research for a capri story I wrote)

was gifted: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

gave/lent to someone: Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

started: A l'assaut du Khili-Khili by W.E. Bowman, translated by Jean Rosenthal from the original The Ascent of Rum Doodle (I have read the original dozens of times; I struggle with reading French but it's fun)

finished: don't know; it would be a Captive Prince fan fiction exceeding 100K words but the only ones I can pull up right now aren't finished yet! But almost! But will they be?!

gave five stars: Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

didn’t finish: don't know; I just moved and everything is packed and so it's likely in a box somewhere with a bookmark in it

–

Tagging @laurentofvcre, @nayona96, @pourcap, @assidi-elkonnery, @mrs-amber, @beautifulduckweed, @rosyandraw, @dreamdropxoxo and everyone else who might like to give this ago. Feel free to jump on in.

#bookclub tag game #books i've read #books i love #books i'm reading #thank you for letting me play along with you! #taj mutthall #captive prince #taj original

[orcboxer]

those first couple weeks after escaping a time loop have gotta be disorienting as all fuck. all those little cues that used to tell you what's about to happen are now triggers that cause you to brace for something that isn't coming. you have to relearn the permanence of death -- hell, you have reacquaint yourself with the entire concept of finality altogether. everything keeps changing but it never changes back and you keep having to remind yourself that this is normal. "it won't reset anymore," you echo to yourself, over and over and over, like a broken record, like you're still trapped in a loop, like someone who escaped the time loop but was doomed to bring it into the future with them

#orcspeak #edit: this is not about fanfic nor is it about a specific fanfic nor is it about a specific show or movie or book #this post is about the time loop trope itself which occurs in many different stories spanning many different art forms #i don't read or write fanfic and I'm not looking for fanfic recs and whatever character you think this is about there's #an 80 percent chance i don't recognize their name

[deadweight-at7am]

I do budget billing through my electric company and my bill is going UP $43 a month despite having been credited on the past 2 months bills... I am literally so confused. But every time I try to call BGE their damn phone lines are jammed. Also, hard to understand why when my budget billing amount has been steadily the same for YEARS? Literally hasn't changed in over 4 years.

I'm almost done Skeletons at the Feast, it's been actually decent so far. Much less heavy on the romance than I had previously thought. Also, the sex scenes in the book are ridiculous. You can tell the author doesn't understand a 17 year old girl, like at all. No offense but men need to ask some women about their experiences before they go and write an entire fucking novel. Other than that, the book has actually been good. I read the GoodReads reviews before I decided to start it and I'm perplexed at how many people were like "way too graphic depictions of war" and "did he really need to include that?" It's a book about the second world war, are you guys under the impression that shit DIDN'T happen to people? It's supposed to make you uncomfortable.

Vincent lost BOTH of his front teeth. We have now nicknamed nim "Toothless"! Poor kid doesn't even have the teeth coming in behind them. I'm kind of sad, kids look so much older once they get their adult teeth. He's only lost one other bottom tooth. It's almost back to school time, the kids will be back in school by the end of the month. As sad as I am to not have as much time with them, this summer was BRUTAL. I don't want to do it again.

#personal #personal post #momblr #mumblr #kids #books #books I'm reading

[rubyleaf]

You know, when I see fictional characters who repress all their emotions, they're usually aloof and very blunt about keeping people at a distance, sometimes to an edgy degree—but what I don't see nearly enough are the emotionally repressed characters who are just…mellow.

Think about it. In real life, the person that's bottling up all their emotions is not the one that's brooding in the corner and snaps at you for trying to befriend them. More often than not, it's that friendly person in your circle who makes easy conversation with you, laughs with you, and listens and gives advice whenever you're upset. But you never see them upset, in fact they seem to have endless patience for you and everything around them—and so you call them their friend, you trust them. And only after months of telling them all your secrets do you realize…

…they've never actually told you anything about themselves.

#i just see it explored so rarely and i think there's a whole bunch of untapped potential here #or else i've been reading the wrong books i dunno #writeblr #writing #character writing #tropes #c: clara hightower #c: elise jamieson #I'm just sayin' #time for ruby's opinion

[literatureatthebowofnails]

My friend wrote a book! Sci-fi fans check it out!!

Weapons of the Mind

#sci fi #literature #fiction #science fiction #books and reading #books #books and libraries #books and literature #books and coffee #books and novels #books books books #books everywhere #weapons of the mind #books for sale #books for life #books i'm reading #books libraries #books lover #books moodboard #books make me happy #books my beloved #books of tumblr #books of the year #books reading #books recommendations #books to read #books tag #books worth reading #books wrapped #recommended reading

[millennialgrandma]

April Wrap Up

How in the ever-loving hell is it May already? I'm not at all sure how this happened, but the month passed in an absolute whirlwind for me. April was an even busier month at work than March was (🍅🍅🍅🍅), and I'm so glad to see the end of it. I also didn't think it was possible, but I read even less this month than I did last month. Boo hiss, I hope that never happens again.

Things I Wrote

So I don't have anything completed for this month, but umm...somehow I now have 6k words written for the yet-entitled panville lumberjack porn-with-significantly-more-than-intended-plot. Oop. I should have this little baby complete in the next week or so and I am beyond excited about it.

Things I Read

I have relapsed. I read exactly one book in March, the books on my shelf trembled in excitement all April, and then I resolutely ignored them. I feel incredibly guilty and I shan't talk about it further.

On the fanfic side of things, this month was a little more diverse in terms of pairings. I got to experience two lovely drarry fics being read by one of my dear friends. And then there's a fair few multi-pairings because I was anxious and stressed and I'm a horny little monster.

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Fanfiction:

Complete: (approx. 77.4k)

Group Read: Let Me Have You and I'll Let You Save Me by Frayach (drarry, M, 6.1k)

Group Read: Strange You Never Knew by @raven-m-3 (dramione, E, 6.5k)

Stupid Games by @senlinyuwrites (dramione, E, 5.8k)

Reread for Group Read: The Seduction by @senlinyuwrites (dramione, E, 11.7k)

Confessions by @teacupniffler (draco/hermione/pansy/theo, E, 12.2k)

Watch Her Shatter by BrightneeBee, JuliaTybalt, PixieKisses, Draughtofpeace, jalapeno_eye_popper, and severusmysin (sevmione+pansy, E, 2.5k)

Stress Relief by Inell (bill/fleur/hermione, E, 2.3k)

Lesson Learnt by @whimsymanaged (hermione/draco/theo/blaise, E, 5k)

Group Read: Ichor and Aureum by @emilythenotsostrange (dramione, E, 9.5k)

Proud, Desperate, Cherished by @heyjude19-writing; embedded SFW art by @abrilas-art (dramione, M, 1k)

Group Read: What Is Necessary by @willhavetheirtrinkets (dramione, E, 7.6k)

Smut with Friends: Study Habits by @indreamsink (dramione, E, 4.1k)

Group Read: Secretly, between the shadow and the soul by @teacup-tai (drarry, T, 3k)

WIPs: (approx. 76.4k)

Brew of a Kind by @indreamsink - Chapters 14 - 18 (dramione, E, 23.8k)

You've Got Parchment by @they-call-me-megs - Chapters 1 - 3 (theomione, E, 17.4k)

Let the Dark In by @senlinyuwrites - Chapter 15 (dramione, M, 3.6k)

Measure of a Man (NOW COMPLETE) by @inadaze22 - Chapters 41 & 42 (dramione, E, 31.6k)

Things I'm Currently Reading (Heading into May)

So I started reading Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal by @isthisselfcare this month. I am 13 chapters in and having the goddamn time of my life. The only reason I haven't devoured the whole thing by now is that we're reading as a group over in the RoR discord server and my friends have asked me to go into each live read blind so they can enjoy my unfiltered reactions. They're lucky I love them. Bless. I've also, umm, started reading a manhwa and it is all @juls99 and Ash's fault. I'm now 131 chapters into Suji Kim's Under the Oak Tree. Bless them for letting me scream in their DMs.

Have a lovely May, friends! The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and the world is getting greener. See you next month!

#april wrap up #wrangling the words #books i've read #books i'm reading #fics i've read #fics i'm reading #apparently i'm writing?