#cristinas book recs

[larksbooks]

my fourth book read in 2023 - Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger

this was a really interesting murder mystery! it was quick-paced, which i appreciated, and though there was a bit of a plot twist at the end i enjoyed being able to put all of the clues together as i read and getting it sort of right! though the mc/narrator nell is compelling, she comes off as a “pick me”/”not like other girls” type, which was annoying and kept pulling me out of my immersion in the book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

#booklr #book recs #girls like us #cristina alger #lark reads 2023

[dearorpheus]

hello, your blog's vibes are absolutely impeccable! I was wondering if you could recommend me some nonfiction reading on eroticism, religion or fear? I'd love to read about any of these topics, but I never really know where to start looking for good theory books or essays, so I usually end up reading fiction instead. any nonfiction recs would be deeply appreciated (and on other topics too if you have particular favorites). have a nice day!

hello! thank you for the kind words♡

hm! some reading might be: - Erotism: Death and Sensuality + Visions of Excess, Bataille - Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs, Deleuze - The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography, Angela Carter - Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose, Leigh Cowart - Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson - A Lover's Discourse, Roland Barthes - Uses of the Erotic, Audre Lorde - A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, 1932-1953 - Foucault's Histor[ies] of Sexuality - Being and Nothingness, Sartre - The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson - Aesthetic Sexuality: A Literary History of Sadomasochism, Romana Byrne - Pleasure Principles: An Interview with Carmen Maria Machado - "The Aesthetics of Fear", Joyce Carol Oates - Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing, Isabel Cristina Pinedo - "On Fear", Mary Ruefle - "In Search of Fear", Philippe Petit - Female Masochism in Film: Sexuality, Ethics and Aesthetics, Ruth Mcphee - Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva - Hélène Cixous' Stigmata (i am thinking esp of "Love of the Wolf") - Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis - anything from Caroline Walker Bynum.... Wonderful Blood, Fragmentation and Redemption, Holy Feast and Holy Fast - excerpts of Letter From a Region in my Mind, James Baldwin - Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche (re: Christian morality, death of God) - Waiting for God, Simone Weil - The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus - Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung - "The Genesis of Blame", Anne Enright

do know as well that Lapham's Quarterly has issues dedicated entirely to these subjects you've mentioned: eros, religion, fear ! there's also this wonderful ask from @rotgospels on biblical horror theory

other non-fic i will always rec: - "On Self-Respect", Joan Didion - Illness as Metaphor + Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag - The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Maggie Nelson - "The Laugh of the Medusa", Hélène Cixous - Ways of Seeing, John Berger - The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit - The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry some non-fic things i've read lately: - "Mary Shelley's Obsession with the Cemetery", Bess Lovejoy - "Horror Lives in the Body", Megan Pillow - "The Cruel Myth of the Suffering Artist", Patrick Nathan - "The Rub of Rough Sex", Chelsea G. Summers - "The Lost Art of Memorizing Poetry", Nina Kang - "The problem with English", Mario Saraceni

#i hope you have a wonderful day too! #asks

[cyancherub]

do you have any book recommendations for us :D

MAYBE SO.......!!!! u know i love talkin abt books!!!

well, ok since ive posted about most of the books ive been reading recently MAYBE i can also post about some that i ordered and am waiting to arrive??? because all of these sounded very interesting to me!!!

SO books i have coming in the mail:

surrealist novels:

the woman in the dunes by kobo abe

the hearing trumpet by leonora carrington

the melancholy of resistance by laszlo krasznahorkai:

the third policeman by flann o'brien

nadja by andre breton

(been really into surrealism lately if it isn't apparent. most excited for melancholy of resistance i think)

horror, gothic, etc:

bruges-la-morte by georges rodenbach

the damned (la-bas) by joris-karl huysmans

floating dragon by peter straub

classics, short stories, etc:

french decadent tales (oxford world's classics) by stephen romer

in watermelon sugar by richard brautigan

swann's way (in search of lost time, #1) by marcel proust

selected short stories by balzac

icefields by thomas wharton

some ive picked up recently & stoked to read:

ada, or ardor by nabokov (my most beloved author of all time)

carmilla by le fanu

nightmare alley by william lindsay gresham

a king alone by jean giono

twilight of the idols by nietzsche

transparent things by nabokov

dark water by koji suzuki

selected poems by jorge luis borges (also beloved)

trolled my goodreads for more recs

books ive read & enjoyed so far this year:

the iliac crest by cristina rivera garza

the tenant by roland topor (FAV!!! huge fav)

crimson labyrinth by yusuke kishi

pedro paramo by juan rulfo

carolina ghost woods by judy jordan

death in her hands by ottessa moshfegh

the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera

in the lake of the woods by tim o'brien

disgrace by j m coetzee

goth by otsuichi

books i enjoyed from last year:

the lottery & other stories by shirley jackson

the vegetarian by han kang

rosemary's baby by ira levin

piercing by ryu murakami (an all time fav)

the bloody chamber by angela carter (fav)

starve acre by andrew michael hurley (also a fav)

the glassy, burning floor of hell by brian evenson

the devil's larder by jim crace

monstrilio by gerardo samano cordova

and as a bonus, literally anything by nabokov. i have a big book of his short fiction that ive been reading slowly for a long while. despair by him is my fav book of all time, hands down. he is a master of absurdism (and a master of every language he writes in).

ALSO!!!! if youre into poetry, anything and every single thing by: t.s. eliot, baudelaire, rimbaud, borges. i also love neruda's poetry but i have heard he was an awful man so keep that in mind

#thotbox #thotmail #talky cherub #library cherub #i buy 95% of my books secondhand #i have something of a problem but i figure books are not the worst addiction one can have.....OOPS

[archive-anecdotes]

introducing myself

ok so this is basically a place where i'm going to talk about anything and everything to do with history. a blog full of random history facts, if you will.

as someone who frequently spends hours combing through history posts finding random facts i had no clue about, i thought i'd give this a go myself, because why not?

there isn't really a specific time frame or era that i plan on talking about so this might get quite chaotic. i may be obsessed with really recent, 90's type stuff one second, and then be ranting about ancient greece the next. however, i will try to keep this semi-organised and vaguely entertaining.

also, i might include some book reviews or book recs, so, you know, varied content.

my name is cristina, and let's see how this goes :)

#history #historyblog

[motifcollector]

Do you happen to have any book reccomendations for books with an unreliable narrator and some kind of (sort of) anti-hero? I’ve been curious, but almost all recs are for mystery, murder mystery, or just outright following the direct villain types and I’m considering looking for ones that just look at the ethics of the main character in a limited perspective.

Hi!! Here are some books that come to mind, not sure if they're exactly what you're looking for but worth checking out :) Some of these are probably obvious suggestions but I'm mentioning them just in case. Also anyone reading this, feel free to add on, I'm sure there are many I forgot!

Lolita and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis

The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie by Ágota Kristóf (I think this one was originally three short novels but in English publication they combined it into one volume)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza

A few other books that I wouldn't straightforwardly categorize the way you described but might still be of interest (all of them are really excellent imo):

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe: Including this one because you mentioned ethics and the narrator is quite pathetic and repulsive, but in a way that's often encouraged (or at least not discouraged) by the society around him.

History of Violence by Édouard Louis: The narrator himself isn't particularly unreliable, but the story’s told through an interesting framing device—he’s listening to his sister recount an attack he survived and mentally noting when he disagrees with how she describes it or characterizes him, so it plays with narrative.

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov: Classic multiple narrator/book within a book situation

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead: The narrator isn't knowingly withholding information from the reader, but there are a bunch of twists and turns that keep you guessing (you discover them as she does.)

#answered asks #book recommendations #reading list #resources

[stavromulabetaaa]

9 fictional crushes

- Xena. need i say more? pretty sure we were all watching Xena when our parents weren't home.

- Carina DeLuca, bisexual icon. whisper italian in my ear please.

- April Ludgate can be mean to me any day.

- Kai Bartley, nonbinary icon. i would 1000% make a fool of myself in front of them

- Ginny Weasley. book and fanon Ginny pls 🔥 (art by @upthehillart)

- every character Lashana Lynch plays. i'm not picky

- Amelia Shepherd my beloved

- okay anyone else remember swooning when Demi played Dani on Glee?

- Cristina Yang could also be mean to me any day. please.

stole this from a separate post chain 👀 tagging @getawayfox @crazybutgood @sitp-recs @itsheliotrope @wolfpants @shealwaysreads @kittycargo

#tag game

[eggtrolls]

13 and 27 I want a book rec

oh hey there

13. If the whole world listened to you right now, what would you say?

probably a lecture on femicide and the patrilineal trap and a recommendation to read Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza

27. What was the last book/movie that really impressed you?

NAILS AND EYES BY KAORI FUJINO. Short, not at all sweet, and excellent. It was published by Pushkin and it's basically a novella with two short stories tacked on at the end. The ending of the novella I reread maybe 4 times just to fully absorb it and the second short story I have been thinking about it for the past two days. Japanese female writers have been putting out some of the best surrealist/body horror fiction on the market for the last ~15 years and we're hitting a translation boom and finally getting the really good stuff. Nails and Eyes, Convenience Store Woman, and The Woman in the Purple Skirt were all Akutagawa Prize winners from the past decade. When Haneko Takayama hits the English langauge market it's over for you hoes

#ask game #I'm very out of touch with Japanese literature but I recommend MONKEY as a publication and Hiroko Oyamada's The Factory was meh #Yoko Ogawa on the other hand. HOLY FUCK.

[peonyblossom]

Since I got one and since we are celebrating all you gorgeous fic writers this month, thought I’d send this to you to do it ya want.

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written 💕

omg that's so tough!! but i will do it for you hehe 💕 (this isn't, like, in order or anything lol)

Love Lost - Sadie got pregnant during her second year of residency and had a miscarriage before she told Ethan. In the aftermath, she struggles to cope. Based on Cristina's plot in S2E3+4 of Grey's Anatomy. Some dialogue belongs to Grey's Anatomy writers. Warnings: Miscarriage (due to ectopic pregnancy), talk of abortion, fertility issues

What If It's Now? - At the end of her final year of university, Jackie is at her wit's end. With only one week left, she's willing to work through her anxiety despite her physical symptoms. It isn't until Thomas connects the dots that the couple realizes there might be something more going on.

History Hates Lovers - When the baby is keeping her up, Jackie decides to spend the time reading a new book she received for Christmas. Little did she know, that book would inspire her next project.

Donahue's - Sadie drunkenly flirts with Ethan and he makes sure she gets home safe :-)

I Like Shiny Things - 5 times Sadie hinted she wanted to get married and 1 time she took matters into her own hands.

#answered #fic recs #self rec

[r-osehips]

I just finished a book about femicide in Mexico and it really crystallized something for me, which is: a society that blames the victims is a society that deputizes the perpetrator.

People say “she was asking for it [femicide] because of how she acted” — but what they mean is, “women are not allowed to be free in that way, and if you dare to be free the punishment is death.”

People say “well you can’t really blame him, boys will be boys,” but what they mean is, “we willingly deputized this man to carry out the death sentence that we decreed.”

Of course this applies to assault and rape and abuse too. We live in a patriarchal society, so men who kill and terrorize women are acting as approved agents of this society. Patriarchy does not just handwave these actions; it demands them, because free women are threats to patriarchy’s existence.

Which is obvious, and I knew all of this, but I hadn’t thought of it in such clear terms until now.

As a feminist in the U.S. I have overwhelmingly heard, and used, the mainstream feminist framing that we must decry victim blaming. Which is true! But imo we need to also talk about the deputization of the perpetrator too, or else we’re missing half the point.

(the book is Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza, and if ppl have recs for more reading about the Mexican feminist movement I’m all ears.)

#feminism #femicide #I’m sure radical feminists* made this point 50 years ago with a million more insights that I’m missing here #i have only read one (1) dworkin and need to dig in more #*radical feminism does not mean terf btw to anyone who is wondering #they had to invent the term terf specifically because normal radical feminism is not about transphobia #part of me resists always adding to feminist posts a note that it’s not a terf post #because i don’t want to feed into the narrative that terfs are the default of feminism or the mainstream #but ultimately i want to err on the side of being an explicitly pro trans feminist #even if it means implying that sexist people are right when they pretend that basic ass feminist talking points #are indistinguishable from terf rhetoric and therefore must be shunned #whatever. those people will do what they’re going to do #i will be over here reading with my trans sisters #bye!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

huzzah! fresh reads friday be upon ye!

first up we've got a list that I'm literally incapable of excluding, because I was instantly lured in my the phrase funky space sorcerers (my ideal occupation):

the line between sci-fi and fantasy can be delightfully thin in you let it, and I personally love stories that bounce on that line like a truly unhinged tightrope walker. Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow is directly called out as a "genre wreck" (affectionate) on this list, which also contains another one of my faves This Is How You Lose the Time War.

next up: some lesser-known recs based on your favorite BookTok darlings. (for legal purposes I do NOT know what TikTok is, I'm only sharing in case this information is useful to someone else.)

I'm delighted to see Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars on this list (incidentally it's another book that I would classify firmly as a space fantasy, bringing together alien refugees and a deal with the devil in contemporary California)! there's also Meet Me in Madrid, a lovely-sounding queer romance I've never heard of, and that one insane queer romance I've absolutely heard of in which two gay campaign staffers are pressured into fake-dating in order to nab votes for their boss??? what a list lmao.

speaking of lists (as if I ever talk about anything else) here's one for all my poetryheads out there:

Shelly Wong has compiled a list of seven other queer women of color poets to check out, including an "intergalactic expanse" from Brenda Shaughnessy, Aricka Foreman's lyrical debut, and Paige Quiñones’ "fable-like haunting."

next up: I think possibly the first recommendation for comics/graphic novels that I've ever done on Fresh Reads Friday? big oops on my part, I'll try to be more attentive to that in the future (especially since I've been diving back into reading comics myself lately!).

I don't know what the fuck happens in Heartstopper and I'm never going to find out, but if you love a fluffy queer comic then there are some real gems on this list to fill that need. you may have already heard of Bingo Love thanks to Tee Franklin's recent work on the ultra-gay Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour, but have you heard of the roommate/rivals in Fence? or the demon-fighting witch and werewolf in Mooncakes? get to it!

and one more rec I don't think I've ever included before: translated fiction from Latin America!

and as long as we're talking about translated Latin American fiction that takes the reader to strange and challenging places, might I also toss out Mariana Enríquez's The Dangers of Smoking in Bed? it's a spooky and exhilarating collection of short stories, one of the most striking books I've read this year.

#bookblr #fresh reads friday

[amelies]

Forgot to message for days lmao oops. I've recently started listening to audiobooks do u have recommendations. Or for books to read read too I feel like those are slightly different categories

dont worry about it lol december is hard 😔 i don't listen to audiobooks because i'm truly incapable of paying attention haha i zone out and miss huge chunks. so i only have regular book recs </3 i read station eleven by emily st john mendel in lockdown and it still a book i remember sooo vividly i love it and think about revisiting it pretty often (i don't actually ever get around to rereading books lol). i've been trying to read her next book sea of tranquility but can't get past the first few pages for whatever reason and keep having to start over. one day 🙏🏽 because i heard it's really good.

i read monkey hunting by cristina garcia for class this semester and really liked it. we also read ghana must go by taiye selasi and everyone was like "this was a way easier read than the other books we read this semester" and i thought i was so stupid because for some reason i just did not get that book and thought it was so much harder to understand than everything else 😭 anyway maybe you can read that one and give your thoughts non anonymously. i also liked crying of lot 49 by thomas pynchon i think i read that one in january. i've heard other pynchon books are more difficult so i haven't gotten around to it yet </3

#anywayyy what are your recs #bpacksanta

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, April 15th

GILES: There's a Watchers' retreat every year in the Cotswolds. (walks to the other end of the table) It's a lovely spot. It's very s-serene. (everyone listens) There's horse riding and hiking and punting (smiles) and lectures and discussions. It-i-it's... it's a great honor to be invited. (a tad bitter) Or so I'm told.

~~Faith, Hope, & Trick~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Backstage 47: “the Price of Lace” by aadler (G)

Shipwreck by apachefirecat (Buffy/Faith, PG/K+)

Purge by SomeKindOfADeviant (Spike/Drusilla, T)

A misogynist faces the Demon Wolf by Bl4ckHunter (Warren, Teen Wolf crossover, T)

Who Am I? by AJ Fields (myfanfiction) (Anya, G)

Bring Me Back To Life by ialwayscomewhenyoucall (poetry, Buffy/Spike)

Hysteria...A Woman's Disease by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion, Chapter 383 by madimpossibledreamer (Ensemble, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, T)

Vamp Fashion, Chapter 3 (complete!) by adella_green (Spike/Proinsias Cassidy, Spike/Dracula, Preacher and What We Do In the Shadows crossover, T)

Lost and Found, Chapter 3 by BlakeStorm (Buffy & Sam Winchester, Supernatural crossover, T)

A Coalition of Heroes, Chapter 11 by Aragorn_II_Elessar (Ensemble, Supernatural and Charmed, T)

William „Der Blutige“ Shakespeare, Chapter 3 by Lilith464 (Ensemble, E, German language)

Mostly Harmless, Chapter 14 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Mostly Harmless, Chapter 15 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Key Saves Spuffy, Chapters 14-15 by Dynamite (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

42, Chapters 14-15 by Dynamite (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Back Through The Woods, Chapter 7 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, R)

Trying, Chapter 19 by Pet35 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

So One of Us is Living, Chapter 5 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Belonging, Chapters 11-15 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Those 2 again, Chapter 3 by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G)

Origin Story of Shanna Brown, Chapter 36 by Cristina (Buffy, Merlin and other crossovers, FR18)

The Butcher, Chapter 16 by Grief Counseling (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Postcards and Snapshots, Chapters 5-6 by TheSunnySlayer (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Those 2 again, Chapter 3 by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G)

The Home Invasions, Chapter 3 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Here we go again, the two of us, Chapter 1 by LJ94 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Harmony by emmatheslayer (worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy/Spike by feyspeaker (worksafe)

Artwork: spuffy wip based on my fav picture of billy idol by snoozieart (worksafe)

Artwork: Spike by vampywillz (worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy by marveletplus (worksafe)

Artwork: Angel sketch by kingbuffy (worksafe)

Headers: Buffy Summers + BtVS Season 5 headers by onegirlinallthewrld (worksafe)

Bar chart race: Top 10 cartoons/comics/graphic novel fandoms on AO3 based on number of fanworks (2009-2022) by bakanokiwami

Fanvid: Buffy/Angel ''Sweet Dreams'' college project by Wearer of the cheese

Fanvid: buffy & angel | all of the girls by a.

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel are doomed love by Driad (slideshow)

Music: Close Your Eyes - Buffy and Angel Love Theme (Piano Cover) by Gishin' Around

[Reviews & Recaps]

The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by staringdownabarrel

Buffy yearbook by kingbuffy

Found a Buffy book I haven’t read [Blood and Fog] by btvs_historian

Podcast: 7.16 – "Storyteller" by If the Apocalypse Comes, Beep Me

[Recs]

Late Night Talk, Buffy/Joyce by badly_knitted recced by petzipellepingo

[Community Announcements]

The SAD Transcript Library

[Fandom Discussions]

the way buffy the vampire slayer uses guns is really interesting by fallingtowers

[Angel/Angelus] the split-divide identities/personalities thing by Girl4Music

Did Faith sign Buffy's yearbook? by kingbuffy

There’s something very funny about Faith’s plan to unleash Angelus in Enemies by nevergonnabemuchmorethanweather

touch starved cangel is just soooooo good and interesting by someonefantastic

Cordelia and Angel by therulerofallpotatos

Angel by wolfstrong

My bold take is I think Spike should’ve eaten Parker by disco-tea

Explain to me how Willow and Tara are just living in Buffy’s house spending all of her money by levelzerohermit

When even the demon bar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is chill with gender neutral bathrooms by levelzerohermit

cordelia and caroline vs. lydia by mimi-dracula

Do you like Kennedy? continued by multiple posters

What did you guys think when you saw Dawn for the first time? by Sinmerina

Why do so many people dislike Tara? continued by multiple posters

Fred all alone by MoreGull

For all of the “I’ve finished Buffy but didn’t like Angel. Should I watch Angel?” by Dry-Dragonfruit5216

Do you think Sunnydale will be rebuilt? by aeryn1227

Buffy season 7 is a misunderstood masterpiece! by D_B_4986

Buffy Billboards by btvs_historian

Do you think Giles fished out all the scoobies diplomas from the rubble? by SmurfSmeg

Sunnydale high shouldn’t be allowed to continue to function with how many people are being murdered by NotCharAznable

Do you feel bad for [Robin Wood and Billy Ford]? by Opening_Knowledge868

I'm feeling quite a quality drop in season 5 compared to 3 and 4 by Thestickleman

Angel season 5 worth it? by Hot-Face2471

Giles as a father figure by _lilith_and_eve_

Prophesy Girl, all the fuss about the prom dress by Inoutngone

Foreshadowing with Snyder by Eagles56

How in the world was this scene from Double Meat Allowed to Air? by aeryn1227

The Gay Buffy Video: Once More With Queering by Lily Simpson

Video: How Tara Became the Best Character by Better with Bob?

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Sides by Christopher Burdett

Angel: The Casefiles Volume 2 by Christopher Burdett

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #angel the series #ats

[vvvla]

6.4.2023

if i wanna build socialism i gotta focus on building myself up. i gotta solve one problem at a time, and become more self-reliant. so that's what i'm going to do.

i redid my cubicle decoration to be reminders of the essentials:

put your own oxygen mask first before assisting others

(1) get it done, (2) treat yo self

NO SHAME, NO FEAR

you are very young and learning to live

next year in Jerusalem!

(drawing of Cristina Yang) ADAPT, IMPROVISE, OVERCOME

shared knowledge & support with an amazing friend & scholar.

finished my objectives for the day. got new books! i dream of assembling a communal library.

stuff shared between others n i today:

book rec: How To Suppress Women's Writing (Joanna Russ)

book rec: Penser sans entraves (Hannah Arendt)

info about iron deficiency, extremely underdiagnosed condition among people who menstruate

banter

oxygen ↔︎ carbon dioxyde

[sosweetandfull]

fin lit = min lit

(me having a swim in a lake in Finland, summer 2018)

Folks fear she’s at it again... That’s right, lads, I’ve decided once more to try and resurrect this blog from its cobwebby state of neglect. Is it because she’s overwhelmed by her impending PhD deadline and the horrifying amount of work she still has to do to finish it? Impossible to say! In any case, my current brainwave is to use this as a space for reflecting on what I’ve been reading as part of a reading challenge I set for myself at the start of this year.

I’m a real one for setting myself little challenges when it comes to reading. In around September 2016, after finishing my undergraduate degree, I was, for some reason, compelled to think about who my favourite authors were. I was spooked to discover that almost all of them were men. A natural consequence of a majority of my reading having been books by men. I had also spent a feverish summer reading, in tandem, Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels and Karl Ove Knausgård’s autobiographical series, My Struggle. Sweaty! Stressful! I’d lap up one Ferrante, and then devour one Knausgård, then a Ferrante, then a Knausgård. Makes me feel sick and dizzy just remembering it. The Knausgård tipped me over the edge. The man-ness of the books left me in serious need of a detox. Time to read some books by women! So I set myself the challenge of not reading books by men for a year. It was an experiment so successful that I could probably list the books I’ve read by men since then on one hand. It’s not a deliberate avoidance anymore at all, and I’ll read anything that sounds good, but somehow that’s just how it’s worked out. 

Last year, the challenge was to up my reading in general. At the end of 2020, I was frustrated by how relatively little I’d read, and regretted the amount of time I’d spent making myself feel sick scrolling on my phone, instead of reading, so my challenge was to read an average of a book a week in 2021. It really worked! I just about exceeded that goal last year, and am set to almost double it this year. Over the last couple of years, I’ve also been on a bit of a career journey, and have started getting more and more into literary translation. My PhD is on translation, so I’m obviously interested in it, but that interest had been fairly specific to translation for theatre. My 2021 reading renaissance got me well and truly back in love with prose, so I also started thinking more and more about translating longer-form writing (i.e. novels). I got onto a couple of translation courses last summer that cemented that interest. In line with that, I started reading more Finnish novels last year. I needed to drastically widen and deepen my knowledge of Finnish literature - particularly contemporary Finnish literature. This year, then, my reading challenge was to read at least one book in Finnish a month. So that’s the thinking behind this proposed blog series: fin-lit = min-lit. Reflections on the Finnish books I’m reading. Helpfully, I’ve fully only started this halfway through the year, so six months of the challenge go undocumented. I may still decide to write on them, but I’ll at least list here what I’ve read so far, for context and posterity: 

Alma by Hanna Weselius

Elämänmeno [The Course of Life] by Pirkko Saisio

Katrina by Sally Salminen (translated from Swedish to Finnish by Juha Hurme) - there is an English translation of this by Naomi Walford.  

Sinun, Margot [Yours, Margot] by Meri Valkama

Matara by Matias Riikonen

Passio [Passion] by Pirkko Saisio

REC by Marisha Rasi-Koskinen

I’ve also read a couple of English translations of Finnish books:

Purge by Sofi Oksanen (translated by Lola Rogers)

The Union of Synchronised Swimmers by Cristina Sandu (translated by Cristina Sandu)

Crossing by Pajtim Statovci (translated by David Hackston)

And I’m currently reading Tainaron by Leena Krohn. So I guess watch this space for future thoughts? Maybe? Hopefully? Fingers crossed? 

[motifcollector]

Monthly Reading Review

I know it's already the 6th but here's a list of the highlights of my reading from August if anyone's interested!

Fiction:

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood

The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza

The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (this is tough to categorize as fully fiction or nonfiction—just putting it here bc it doesn’t seem to fit with the more academic/theoretical texts)

“Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (shoutout @joepanden for the rec <3): https://www.commentary.org/articles/isaac-singer/yentl-the-yeshiva-boy-a-story/

Poetry:

Selected Poems: 1965-1975 by Margaret Atwood

Flight and Metamorphosis by Nelly Sachs

Nonfiction:

Theatre/Theory/Theatre edited by Daniel Charles Gerould

Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“Judging in Secret” by Jameel Jaffar, New York Review of Books: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/04/20/judging-in-secret-office-of-legal-counsel-jameel-jaffer/

#monthly review #book recommendations #peyton.txt

[folkpages]

Review: Lady Midnight

Clare, C (2016). Lady Midnight. Margaret McElderry Books. 

4/5 stars

‘We are more than the single actions we undertake, whether they be good or evil.’

Synopsis: The Shadowhunters of Los Angeles star in the first novel in Cassandra Clare's newest series, The Dark Artifices, a sequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

It's been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn't lead her in treacherous directions… Making things even more complicated, Julian's brother Mark-who was captured by the faeries five years ago-has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind-and they need the Shadowhunters' help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn't recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it? Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare's Dark Artifices series. (x)

Lady Midnight was honestly one of my favourite books in quite a while. Clare has written beautiful imagery, relatable characters, fascinating plots and intriguing moral queries. The humour was on point (I still catch myself giggling occasionally at pizza) and while I had my doubts at her ability to pull off a murder mystery, she has done a wonderful job and I had no idea who the murderer was until it was revealed. 

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Plot: Emma Carstairs’ parents were ritualistically murdered 5 years ago, and new murder victims have been found having been murdered the same way. As it so happens some of the victims have been faeries, which Emma shouldn’t care about due to the Cold Peace, a treaty of non-interaction between the faeries and shadowhunters after the event of the Dark War. However, Emma’s parabatai’s brother was stolen by faeries 5 years ago and the faerie’s promise to return him for two weeks if they solve the murders and allow Mark (said brother) to choose if he’d like to remain with the humans or faeries following that. Adding to all this some side plots including the classic forbidden romance between Emma and her parabatai Julian, Mark and Emma’s new friend Cristina plus his longstanding thing with Faerie Prince Kieran plus a mysterious tutor, a mysterious old friend/love interest of Cristina’s and a mentally ill guardian, this book is packed full of action!

Pro: The murder mystery was absolutely fantastic. The murders tied in wonderfully with the beautiful worldbuilding Clare includes in this novel, and I honestly did not see many of the plot twists coming. I could not for the life of me work out who the murderer was (I thought it was Johnny Rook for a while) and who it was and what their motivation was blew me away!

Con: I did not like the main male-lead Julian and I did not like the main romance between him and Emma. I personally found Julian to be rather creepy in his ‘love’ for Emma which came off rather stalker-like to me. I also didn’t like the resentment he seemed to hold for being the care-giver of his family, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because it was super relatable to me personally. He was well-written, and his motivations were solid, I just didn’t like his treatment of Emma and thus their relationship which is why my rating of this book is 4 stars rather than 5.

Pro: Representation. Clare gives us LGBTQ+ rep with wonderful bisexual Mark Blackthorn and boyfriend Kieran as well as (I’m assuming as its never explicitly labelled) autistic Ty Blackthorn who is utterly darling and daring; a tech geek and brilliant knife combatant. I can’t comment too much on Ty as I’m not autistic but he was wonderfully written with his autism being prevalent in all his scenes but never the focus of it (unless we are hearing from Julian’s POV).

Emma Carstairs: I personally really enjoyed Emma’s character. For all she was the strong female character with a sword, she wasn’t just a ‘strong female character with a sword’ trope. She was a very emotional character and wasn’t afraid to let people know how she was feeling; her motivations were clear and understandable and her relationships with the other characters were incredibly nuanced and strong. However, towards the end of the book I feel she became a little weaker; she didn’t tell Julian the truth about the parabatai curse and was very insensitive (manipulative? I’m not sure which word is quite correct but assume it’s a bad one) to Mark with her request at the end even if he did agree to it. Overall, I really liked her but kind of wanted to shake her at the end.

Julian Blackthorn: I’ve already talked about Julian in the Con, but to rehash: I don’t like him but he was well-written.

Mark Blackthorn: First off, I just want to say that I am so glad for more bisexual representation thank you Cassandra Clare! Mark Blackthorn has honestly made my top characters of all-time list and here’s why: Mark is a half-faerie half-shadowhunter boy who was stolen by faeries to join the Wild Hunt during the events of The Mortal Instruments wherein he was used and abused and fell in love with exiled faerie Prince Kieran. In Lady Midnight he is bartered as a prize to get the Blackthorn’s and Emma to investigate murders and he goes through so much in the space of the two-week period this novel is set. He acts as a moral support for Cristina who he grows to care about deeply, he works with and against Julian and Emma as he needs to and bonds with his younger siblings all while struggling with his identity as a faerie and a shadowhunter and navigating his relationship with Kieran. Mark is an absolute gem; as capricious as a faerie but still truly kind and honourable and vulnerable and I just love him so much!

Cristina Mendoza Rosales: Cristina is a strong character and a wonderful person! Cristina is new to the LA Institute and Emma’s new best friend and honestly such a joy. Beautiful bilingual badass, Cristina is at once moral support to both Emma and Mark, helping Emma through her anger and grief at her parent’s death on top of her feelings for Julian, she helps Mark adjust to shadowhunter life while also being set up as a potential love interest. She also is crucial to the murder plot and has so much to add beyond being a love interest and she is honestly wonderful to read about.

Blackthorn Kids: There are so many of them I’m gonna loop them all in together. Ty and Livvy are brilliant characters with their own distinct motivations and conflicts. Dru, while not being all that important in the book, had her own unique personality and strengths. Tavvy, the baby of the group, was utterly darling and so important to the plot which I honestly did not see coming? Kudos to Clare for creating side characters that I enjoy!

Overall: I adored this book and I will definitely be picking up the sequel. I’d recommend giving it a try even if you weren’t a big fan of The Mortal Instruments as its quite a step away. The characters are solid, the plot is intriguing and honestly the writing is absolutely beautiful. I’ll leave you with 4/5 stars and this gem:

“This cat is looking at me with judgement.”

“He’s not,” said Jules. “That’s just his face.”

“You look at me the same way,” Mark said, glancing at Julian. “Judgy face.”

Lady Midnight is the first in Cassandra Clare’s The Dark Artifices trilogy. The second and third books Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness are available now.

#review #lady midnight #Cassandra clare #shadowhunters #tmi #tda #the dark artifices #booklr #book review #book rec #emma carstairs #julian blackthorn #mark blackthorn #cristina rosales #clary fray #jace wayland #jace herondale #magnus bane #perfect diego #malcolm fade #tid #the mortal instruments #the infernal devices #Tessa gray #jem carstairs #johnny rook #kit herondale #ty blackthorn #livvy blackthorn #tavvy blackthorn