Tumgik
#great books
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
As always, my favorites of the year list was beset by last minute changes, doubts, and decisions, especially because this year I forced myself into a top 10!
Second photo is my honorable mentions...I literally already have regrets! Ask me anything about these top choices—I'm happy to share my reviews, thoughts, and more!
My Top Ten of 2023:
Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu tr. Seidensticker
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
Ace by Angela Chen
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez tr. McDowell
Honorable mentions:
Now Go: On Grief and Studio Ghibli by Karl Thomas Smith
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami tr. Gabriel
The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
When the Hibiscus Falls by M. Evelina Galang
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Bleed: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care by Tracey Lindeman
Never a City So Real by Alex Kotlowitz
The Crown Ain't Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib
Sons of Darkness (Jan ’24) by Gourav Mohanty
The End of August by Yū Miri tr. Giles
(Unpictured): Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
(Unpictured): The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter
100 notes · View notes
cmcwritingismylife · 7 months
Text
My Young Adult Book Series ~ Free Giveaway!
Hello Tumblr!
I'm an author of a YA fantasy book series called The Rags and Riches series. 2/4 books are out, and I'm hard at work on the third.
The book series follows 16-year-old Rose King as she is magically transported to a world with demons, vampires, and a terrifying monster that lurks in the shadows. Once there, she can't find her way home, and falls in with a group of teenagers who are just trying to survive.
This book series is my passion project. I love working on it and want to promote it as much as possible.
If you are interested, here is a link to a you tube video of me reading the first chapter.
I would like to do a free give away of The Rose Petal and the sequel Broken Time. To save myself time and money, I will be sending the books directly to you, so these copies won't be signed.
To enter the give away please do the following things:
Reblog this post so that it can reach more people
Comment that you want a copy
I will pick a winner and contact them on September 9th, 2023. Please do not send me your mailing address unless I contact you asking for it. This is my only writing blog and I will not contact you with any other username.
For whoever wins the competition, small authors like me always appreciate reviews on any social media platform, but that is not required for you to win a copy.
Please note that this giveaway is for USA only!
Thank you for participating and happy reading,
C. Casarico
113 notes · View notes
Text
i love you strange literature i love you describing characters in a non-objectifying way i love you weird yet accurate comparisons i love you unreliable narrators i love you foreshadowing i love you villains with backstories that don't excuse their actions but still explain them i love you protagonists that just give up at some point because they've been through too much. i love you daniel handler
811 notes · View notes
gailcarriger · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
135 notes · View notes
augustineconfessing · 7 months
Text
Tumblr media
I love the epic of Gilgamesh more than my heart can even contain oh my God!
24 notes · View notes
tomorrowisabetterdayx · 3 months
Text
Tumblr media
14 notes · View notes
maple-clef · 6 months
Text
Aaah, Witch King is so good. Martha Wells has such interesting and distinct takes on whatever genre she is writing in, and I love her confidence in the reader to be able to stay with her without hand holding.
Also nice to feel like this could be a standalone or not, like there's a definite sense of closure but also plenty of scope for further shenanigans (unburning) too.
18 notes · View notes
greatbooksprof · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
“Tell me the story of a complicated man.”
284 notes · View notes
th0tcrates · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
The Voyage of the Bassett
10 notes · View notes
thestateofspirit · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
That bowl of strawberries almost soothed the heartache this book has given me. Almost.
261 notes · View notes
classicbooks101 · 1 year
Quote
What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.
The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck 
38 notes · View notes
usnatarchives · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
White House Hailed BANNED BOOK Authors! By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs
In honor of #BannedBookWeek, we show how authors of some of the "most banned books" -- including Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, Toni Morrison -- were celebrated, embraced and welcomed by the White House.
MARK TWAIN - endorsed by George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and FDR!
To honor much-banned author Mark Twain, FDR dedicated the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge (Hannibal, MO, 1936) and the Mark Twain National Forest (Rollo, MO, 1939).
Tumblr media
FDR's Address at the dedication of The Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, 9/4/1936, Hannibal, MO, NARA ID 197594.
Mark Twain National Forest (Rolla, MO), est. 9/11/1939.
Tumblr media
Sign for Mark Twain National Forest, 9/9/1965, NARA ID 2132546
President George W. Bush and First Lady (& librarian) Laura Bush held a White House Symposium on Mark Twain (11/29/2001).
Tumblr media
Invitation to 2001 White House Symposium on Mark Twain. George W. Bush Library. NARA ID 148028517.
HARPER LEE, Presidential Medal of Freedom
Many praised author Harper Lee including Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Tumblr media
President Obama's Tribute to Harper Lee, 2/19/2016, Obama Library, NARA ID 236742454.
Tumblr media
President George W. Bush with Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Harper Lee, 10/12/2007, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 7431358.
JOHN STEINBECK, pals with LBJ!
President Johnson awarded writer John Steinbeck the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Steinbeck already had won a 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Grapes of Wrath and the 1962 Nobel Prize.
Tumblr media
LBJ awards Steinbeck the Presidential Medal of Freedom while First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, looks on. Steinbeck Center Photo Archive.
Two years later, (5/16/1966) Steinbeck and his 19 year-old son visited President Johnson at the White House, just a few weeks after John, Jr. had completed Army basic training and shortly before his departure for Vietnam. More about this visit here.
Tumblr media
John Steinbeck Jr. at 19 (L)) with father John and LBJ in the Oval Office, 5/16/1966. Online.
Thank you note from Steinbeck to LBJ:
Tumblr media
Letter from John Steinbeck to President Johnson, 5/28/1966. Johnson Library, NARA ID 6207609.
Listen to LBJ's call with Steinback about Vietnam (12/4/1966) "Lady Bird sends her love and we look forward to seeing you..." NARA ID 205707398.
Ban COMICS, too? "Poisoning our Children’s Minds"
Tumblr media
First Issue of “Mad Magazine”, 10/1952, Committee Papers, 1816 - 2011. Records of the U.S. Senate, NARA ID 595430.
The National Archives has a copy of issue #1 of MAD magazine, a permanent federal record that was submitted to a Senate subcommittee in 1953 on juvenile delinquency as evidence of comics’ corrupting influence on young people.
For three days, experts testified on whether or not comic books were “printed poison” for young people. The hearings created so much bad press for the comics industry that it created the Comics Code Authority to self-regulate the content of their comic books. MAD’s publisher reformatted the publication as a magazine in order to avoid the CCA restrictions. Learn more about these hearings here. The National Archives Museum's (DC) Records of Rights exhibit includes this letter from an outraged mother urging Congress to ban “these lurid, highly colored comics" that lead to increased crime. She urges PTAs and "mothers of our beloved country" to unite and fight comics for 3 reasons:
"Would be a great step forward in the control of the young, especially the young boys."
"All the awful crime stories and murder mysteries [are] sent out to pollute the air and corrupt the minds of our younger generation."
"Reading all these lurid, highly colored comics ruins a child's appetite for good books..."
Tumblr media
Letter from Eugenia Y. Genovar Regarding Comic Book Censorship, NARA ID 6120051.
Other frequently-banned authors/Presidential Medals of Freedom winners include:
Toni Morrison (2012)
Tumblr media
President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Toni Morrison, 5/29/2012. Pete Souza, Obama Library. NARA ID 176548906.
Maya Angelou (2010)
Tumblr media
President Obama awards the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Maya Angelou, 2/15/2011. By Lawrence Jackson, Obama Library, NARA ID 231832591.
More online re: #bannedbook authors:
Letter to President Theodore Roosevelt from Upton Sinclair, whose novel “The Jungle” has been banned in banned in Yugoslavia, East Germany, South Korea, and Boston.
Deposition of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin)
Facial Hair Friday: Mark Twain, Pieces of History
JFK & Hemingway: Beyond “Grace Under Pressure”
Tumblr media
128 notes · View notes
angstymilfy · 4 months
Text
Ran across a listing of American badasses, and recognized this guy immediately. I read his life story some years ago; great book about an extremely interesting life.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
This book, in fact. 👇🏻 Highly recommend.
Tumblr media
6 notes · View notes
unbizzarre · 8 months
Text
Tumblr media
Kinch, five seconds before he’s arrested.
Illustration of Kinch Na Shannack, from The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Probably my favorite book of 2021. And probably in top 10 favorite books/authors overall. Maybe top 5?
Noticed that there is a criminal lack of fanart for this book. Don’t know why cuz this book kicks ass.
Fantastic voicey character writing as usual from CB, very cool and unique premise for a fantasy world, and an absolutely delightful protagonist. The world is dark and the protagonist is constantly eating shit, yet I’m grinning ear to ear every page. It’s just that much of a blast to experience the story as told through Kinch’s distractible and entertaining anecdotes. 10/10 very fun read!
12 notes · View notes
cecilia37 · 3 months
Text
Great Novels
Great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors.
-- Milan Kundera
6 notes · View notes
wctruitt · 2 years
Text
They were literally backwoodsmen, who had always resided on the frontiers, forming the connecting link between civilized and savage men; and who did not, in their emigration to the west, form any new acquaintance with the perils of the wilderness. They had been inhabitants of the long line of frontier lying east of the Alleghany mountains; were the descendants of men, whose lives had been spent in fierce contests with the Indians; and were themselves accustomed from infancy, to the vicissitudes of hunting and border warfare. A few of them came from Pennsylvania and Maryland, but the great body from Virginia and North Carolina.
Strictly speaking, they were not farmers; for, although they engaged in agriculture, they depended chiefly on their guns for subsistence; and were allured to the west, rather by the glories of the boundless forest and the abundance of game, than by the fertility of the new lands and the ample resources of the country. They came singly or in small parties, careless of protection and fearless of consequences.
Their first residence was a camp; a frail shelter formed of poles and bark, carefully concealed in some retired spot, in which they hid the spoils of the chase, and to which they sometimes crept for repose at night, or slept away the long inclement days, when the hunter and his prey were alike driven by the storm to seek the shelter of their coverts. At other times, they roamed abroad, either engaged in hunting, or in making long journies of exploration; sleeping in the open air, and feeding upon the fruits of the forest and the flesh of wild animals, without bread or condiment.
Excerpt from SKETCHES OF HISTORY, LIFE, AND MANNERS INTHE FAR WEST; by James Hall (1834)
72 notes · View notes