#my book rec

[alistairlowes]

i'm sorry but this shit annoys me to no end. like this is about heartstopper and you all need to stop acting like that show invented everything.

fucking anyways

1. Koisenu Futari

Show that’s specifically made to be about aromanticism and asexuality as well as how aroace people are perceived by society. They are main characters. That’s the main plot.

2. Heartbreak High

Want a teen show with ace rep? No problem. One of the main characters is ace! Would you look at that! The representation already exists! It's got a ton of other rep too and it's on Netflix but somehow we never got that ace rep yet right? You don't even need subtitles for this one.

3. SkamFr (s12)

Is it a bit too much at times? Ye sure but you know what it also is? Another teen show where the main character is asexual that deals with asexuality as the main theme. And no you don't need to watch all those seasons before to get it.

4. Bojack Horseman

I didn't even watch this one but I'm aware.

5. Cherry Magic

Oh would you look at that a show with main mlm couple where one of the side characters is aroace? I mean surely it hasn't been done before.

6. Run On

You want some casual side character ace rep? Well here you go even kdramas have done it but I guess there just aren't any shows...

Honorary mention to Sex Ed for that one scene.

#asexuality #aroace show recs #aroace shows #i know there is more but these are ones me or my friend watched and we think they are good #alice o*eman would get a stroke over cherry magic because it's ~fEtIsHiSt BL so it couldn't possibly do what she does :// #and yeah i say that as someone who's fav book is radio silence #anyway if you actually cared about ace rep you would look beyond what is served to you by one streaming service goodbye #koisenu futari #heartbreak high #skam france #cherry magic #run on #bojack horseman

[obsob]

hgrng...thinking of love 

#mine #original #yes i realise i keep posting felttip cats but. they are fun #my sketchbook is just felt tip cats. almost exclusively #ive had a DAY. some how spent 3 hours sitting at my laptop and achieved nothing #trying to find answers to technical problems. i once had 20 tabs open and i was like okay i should like. have lunch #also my mum kept talkin abt my childhood n i was like. almost completely dissociating..mental illness >:) #i have headache >:( #but now is weekend...hehe.....its gna be warm tomorrow im going to read my book #i would LIKE to finish it....maybe i will....can i read 300 pages in one day mm maybe not #i feel like this book is gna end in tears. hmm. #okay im going to bed now goodnight! #going to play rainworld hehehhehehe #song rec of the day is bible belt my dry the river #song rec is also the NEW mcr song. hohfhbgdfgk

[phaedraismyusername]

This year some of my favourite books I read were written by indigenous American authors and I just wanted to shout out a couple that I fell in love with

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Horror being my second most read genre, I did not think books could still get under my skin the way this one did lol. It follows four Blackfoot men who are seemingly being hunted by a vengeful... something... years after a fateful hunting trip that happened just before they went their separate ways. The horror, the dread, the something... pure nightmare fuel 10/10

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

An apocalyptic novel following an isolated Anishinaabe community in the far north who lose contact with the outside world. When two of their young men return from their college with dire news, they set about planning on how to survive the winter, but when outsiders follow, lines are drawn in the community that might doom them all. This book is all dread all the time, the use of dreams and the inevitability of conflict weighs heavy til the very end. An excellent apocalypse story if you're into that kind of thing.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

This book follows Jade, a deeply troubled mixed race teenager with a shitty homelife who's *obsessed* with slasher movies. When she finds evidence that there's a killer running about her soon-to-be gentrified small town, she weaponises that knowledge to predict what's going to happen next. I don't think this book will work for most people, it's a little stream of consciousness, Jade's head is frequently a very difficult place to be in, but by the last page I had so much love for her as a character and the emotional rollercoaster she's on that I had to mention it here.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Taking a bit of a left turn but this charming YA murder mystery really stuck with me this year. Elatsoe is a teenage girl living in an America where myths, monsters, and magic are all real every day occurrences. When her cousin dies mysteriously with no witnesses, she decides to do whatever she can, including using her ability to raise the spirits of dead animals, to solve the case. The worldbuilding was just really fun in this one, but the Native American myths and influence were the shining star for me, and the asexual rep was refreshing to see in a YA book too tbh

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

The audiobook, the audiobook, the audiobook!!!! Also the physical book because formatting and illustrations, but the audiobook!!! Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer, and this novel is a genre blending of 20 years worth of the authors journal entries, poetry, and short stories, that culminates in a truly unique story about a young girl surviving her teenage years in a small tundra town in the 70s. It is sad and beautiful and hard but an experience like nothing else I read this year.

#the only good indians #my heart is a chainsaw #stephen graham jones #moon of the crusted snow #waubgeshig rice #elatsoe #darcie little badger #split tooth #tanya tagaq #indigenous authors #2022 reads #book recs #books #booklr

[fishfingersandscarves]

i'm excited to show dream's board book for To Be Brand New by @dsudis for @the-centennial-husbands-bigbang (dream's helm lenses are made with reflective paper! so irl you can look at yourself on the page)

link to the high rez illustrations

#my art #fishfingersandscarves #the sandman #the sandman netflix #big band #the centennial husbands big bang #dreamling #fic rec #illustration #book cover #printing #dream of the endless #dream (the sandman) #dsudis #desire of the endless #death of the endless #despair of the endless #delirium of the endless #destruction of the endless #night (the sandman) #time (the sandman) #destiny of the endless #destiny (the sandman) #death (the sandman) #delirium (the sandman) #desire (the sandman) #despair (the sandman) #destruction (the sandman)

[captainkirkk]

I'm normally a very slow reader of published novels, but I devoured The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard and now I can NOT stop thinking about it.

Everyone who has read my Fire Lord Zuko content knows how much I love 1) people of power working tirelessly to make the world a better place for all; and b) kings, slowly being crushed under the weight of their crown and duty, finding love and care in their loyal servants and staff

Except this story is more. The Emperor is worshiped and treated as a god, bound by extreme taboos and protocols that he can't break. It's about his staff (his found family) looking BEYOND the exterior of godhood and finding the human being underneath - who is dying under the weight of being the Emperor - and deciding to reach out, even if by acknowledging his humanity they are technically breaking many laws.

God this book is about so many things, including:

Found family can be the Last Emperor and his senior members of staff

The Emperor learning how to be human again with the help of his friends

There's no romance in this book. The deep friendships are the beating heart of this story, and they very much Love each other.

Breaking down a previously corrupt imperial empire through hard work and radial reforms, leading to sweeping changes including UNIVERSAL INCOME

Embracing cultural heritage, even in the heart of the imperial palace. Our main character is both one of the highest ranking members of government and from an islander culture, and he dedicates himself to both

The struggle for your family (who have a case of tall poppy syndrome, and live far far away from the capital and palace) to see you as a respected adult and understand all of your (many, MANY) achievements, even when you're very literally brought the Emperor home with you.

This book has some BEAUTIFUL confrontations, take-downs, and revelations based on the past two points (and more). If you underestimate or insult our main character, You Will Regret It. Watching him lose his temper is a glorious thing to behold.

Anyway I'm pretty sure this just became my all-time favourite book, because it's beautifully written and touches on all of my favourite tropes.

#the hands of the emperor #nine worlds #book recs #i'm currently halfway through the sequel #and my heart cannot take it i need to know what the fuck is going on between our main characters #the slow burn is killing me #so i'm distracting myself by yelling about the og novel on here #my posts

[katy-l-wood]

Half of these are about one specific character. 😂

My new book, The Pits, is out in one week! Halloween 2023. Check out all the info about it, including where to order, on my website.

#The Pits #Book Release #Bookblr #Book Rec #My Writing #My Art #Poll #Tumblr Poll

[rhythmelia]

Support a translator of color!

This is an ongoing situation as of 2023.06.24.

My friend Yilin (she/they) does a lot (A LOT) of work translating literature from Chinese to English, among other things. And they allowed me to signal boost this on tumblr since she doesn't have one yet.

The beginning of the thread is here: https://twitter.com/yilinwriter/status/1670305203206385665 and all the tweet images below are not described because they are previews of direct links to the tweets.

Key points: The British Museum stole their translation work and used it, uncredited, in a major exhibit where they "appeared in photos on a giant display, on signage, in a physical guide, in a digital guide, in an audio guide, and in an app that is available for international download. How did NO ONE catch there was no credit?"

The response from the British Museum has been enormously disappointing so far:

"we will not be reinstating the translations in the exhibition that have been removed following your complaint, and therefore you will not be acknowledged in the exhibition as your work will not be featured" - except the uncredited translations are still in the 30,000 copies of the exhibition catalog.

Go check out more updates downthread as the situation develops.

Want to support Yilin?

"If you want to write to them or have written to the BM, you can help convey these demands of mine to them: - credit + public apology everywhere the work appears - proper payment (increased to account for lack of prior permission given & all the time the work was uncredited)"

Boost Yilin's book! "The Lantern & the Night Moths, an anthology of Chinese poetry that I selected & translated, featuring poets incl. Qiu Jin, accompanied by my essays on translation, forthcoming w/ @/invisibooks in Spring 2024"

Yilin's page: https://yilinwang.com/book-announcement-the-lantern-and-the-night-moths/

and the pre-order link: https://invisiblepublishing.com/product/the-lantern-and-the-night-moths/

I'll try to update as more things happen, or you can go camp out on the thread.

Edit: please reblog the most current update here from 2023.07.05:

#Chinese poetry #British Museum #Yilin Wang #translation #copyright infringement #colonialism #translation is a lot of work! credit the translators! #signal boost #my post #book rec #long post #If you see this through me #please update the most current reblog #you can probably find it most easily on my blog in Yilin Wang tag #crowdfunding #lgbtqia+ #racism #the full post is so long now as of 2023.07.05 but more to come~

[perfectlynormalbooks]

One-volume binding of Shimeji Simulation, one of my favorite mangas of all time. Folio size, Polar Duo, metallic silver HTV + case (with a little hole so you can see the girls being tender together 💙)

I made this one for a friend who mentioned that he'd be interested in reading the manga, but preferred to read manga in physical form. There's no licensed English translation OR print run of this, so I decided to make my own - I downloaded the Orchesc/a/ns translation/scan on MangaDex, compiled it all into a single volume, and reversed the PDF page order before imposing it into signature-form, so it can be read right-to-left, as intended! The edge art is hand-drawn by me, meant to mimic those geometric doodles that show up throughout the story. Hand-sewn headbands, to pull it together! And a little mushroom + fish charm bookmark, because OBVIOUSLY!

Fun fact: this is the first book I've ever bound that's been too chunky to fit in my home guillotine. It was nearly too big for my bookpress, too - but only nearly.

#shimeji simulation #bookbinding #my books #perfectly normal books #i could not tell you if this counts as fanbinding or not. #if nothing else this is a wholehearted rec for this manga: please go read it! it rules

[kulapti]

Aug 2023, bookbinding of The Silent Isle Imbowers by Tharkuun.

I’m sooo so so pleased to finally share this! I have been actively working on this for many months and waited until Tharkuun received her copy before posting so the final result would be a surprise.

-----------About this bookbinding under the cut

This binding has been one of the more elaborate pieces I have attempted so far. This has been my first binding where I (1) made three copies of a piece at once, (2) used a modified a historical illustration, (3) collaborated directly with another artist on the decorative elements, (4) finished matching art for the cover and title page, and (5) layered paint and heat-transfer vinyl for the covers. These are also (6) the first non-tiny books I have made with this style of hinge and cover attachment.

Pretty much immediately after I first read this story I felt I had to make myself a copy of this. I had a strong mental image of a vintage-looking cover for a fairy tale, with a deceptively simple design of flowers on the cover, probably with fancy metallic accents, the kind of thing you’d find in an interesting used bookstore with no summary, no text on the back, no dust jacket, just the flowers and maybe a title. I’m going to make a separate post about making this cover design a reality because oh man has it been a journey lol! I designed and drew the digital art for the cover (digital because of the cut and application method), as well as the corresponding title page illustration (pencil and dip pen, scanned, title added digitally).

When I asked Tharkuun about it she was excited to suggest I get in touch with quillingwords, who generously agreed to collaborate with me! Among her talents quilling writes calligraphy, and hand wrote both the book title and chapter headers for me to incorporate into my plans. Check OUT those chapter headers! So fancy! A font could never!! Quilling has also been very encouraging and let me yell about this project in dms for months so the final result could be a surprise for Tharkuun. Thank u so much quillingwords, your calligraphy adds invaluable amounts of swag to this project.

I was going to do some kinda neat font for the chapter headers, but quilling’s work is too cool for that and I decided to use a modified piece of a historical illustration instead. The illustration also happens to be cool as heck: I was browsing the Artstor database (an academic quality resource available for free via Jstor, my beloved) and found E. N. Neureuther's 1836 gorgeous etching for etching of the fairy tale Briar Rose, an illustration made for a printing of a Brothers Grimm recorded German fairy tale with Sleeping Beauty elements. Much to my delight this illustration not only matches the general look I wanted but is actually relevant to the story, itself a Sleeping Beauty spinoff.

Slightly less stylistically consistent are the endpapers, which are prints of two different paintings by Arnold Böcklin: Isle of the Dead (1883) in the front and Isle of Life (1888). The first painting had occurred to me as an excellent visual to go with the story, and Tharkuun and I discussed this and agreed that pairing it with the related later, more optimistic piece was too thematically appropriate to resist.

I had fun and learned a lot making these books and I am very pleased with the result!!

Materials: Archival bookboard, cardstock, cotton cheesecloth mull, archival PVA glue, linen thread coated in beeswax, paper cord, red cotton embroidery floss. Blue cotton backed with archival paper, acrylic paint, machine cut black and gold heat-transfer vinyl. Laser printed text and illustrations. Metallic scrapbooking paper.

#artists on tumblr #bookbinding #ficbinding #fanbinding #dreamling #my art #here there be fandom #the sandman #the silent isle imbowers #tharkuun #described #id in alt text #pls imagine me screaming continuously about this project for oh idk 4 or 5 months? oh I can make shiny books?? #im not allowed to @ people in this post apparently #links and fic rec in reblog #laying on the floor I found a few missing words I must have deleted on accident while fixing formatting #poppies (Papaver somniferum) and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) #tailfeather binding

[ejunkiet]

quick & dirty werewolf romance rec list

Wolfsong & the rest of the Green Creek Series by TJ Klune. Addictive, heart wrenching, fantastic. MM, adult, coming of age gay romances with high drama and romantic tension. If you want to read about werewolves, this is the gold standard. I'm in love with Klune's writing style. LGBTQA+ rep -- book three features an ace romance!!!

Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre (Tooth and Claw #1). @matsuoclan has the BEST book recommendations, oh my god. Grace moves to a remote town in Alaska to escape her past, and finds a new family, and more besides. Explores the themes of loneliness and depression with a supernatural twist, with a sprinkle of enemies to lovers. Love this book, will devour the series >:3

Ruby and the Wolf by Clover Down. @dominimoonbeam remains one of my favourite PNR writers. After putting her life on the line for a stranger, Ruby finds herself on the run from vampires with the wolf she saved. SO STEAMY. SO GOOD.

Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert. A werewolf falls head over heels for a hunter. SO GOOD. SO FUN. READ IT.

The Lone Wolf's Rejected Mate by Cate C Wells. Another book rec from a moot that I devoured. Wells is a guilty pleasure, and this is my favourite of this series. Deals with trauma, mind the content warnings, Darragh has my heart.

Tumblr recs

@monstersandmaw - Gabe and Odessa, complete, full novel. I cannot tell you how many times I've read this story. It's a comfort read okay. Slow burn. Odessa, lawyer, escaping the city, moves into a small cabin in the woods and meets Gabe, a park ranger, with more to him than it seems. Just a beautiful story.

@snowkissedmonsters - Candy and the wolves. Explores poly dynamics between a wolfpack and the human waitress Candy who is their mate. Gorgeous art to accompany it too!

#werewolves #pnr #werewolf/human #book rec #pnr recs #i have no idea what tags to use #this is pretty much a rec list for me as much as anyone else #but i ADORE these stories okay #book recs #werewoofs my beloved #PLEASE rec me more books along these lines #i am ALWAYS taking suggestions 😚💖

[mendingbone]

i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, bi/aro, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many of their wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany*

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom*

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*

#the * means i have not read it myself but have heard good things and/or have it on my to read list!! #wanted to add little blurbs on each book but i am disabled and exhausted and truly don't have the energy for anything other than listing #please do ur own research for content warnings etc! be safe. enjoy <33 #adult fiction #adult horror #horror #reference #queer lit #queer adult lit #horror fiction #thriller fiction #book recs #horror media #book list #book recommendations #iron widow #xiran jay zhao #the locked tomb #tlt #tamsyn muir #the dreamer trilogy #tdt #maggie stiefvater #gillian flynn #gone girl #sharp objects #house of leaves #shirley jackson #haunting of hill house #v. e. schwab

[fellshish]

Helloooo I just finished season 2 and I need SOME KIND OF CLOSURE DAMNIT do you have any favorite fics that might help with this???

Of course my dear, i got you <3 these all provide post good omens s2 happy endings:

We can’t keep meeting like this (65k, E): a rollercoaster of a fic really, some very memorable oyster-related scenes

No rest for the wicked (24k, M): funny emotional shenanigans with crowley-muriel friendship and an aziracrow happy ending

Dead nightingales still sing (6k, T): aziraphale returns to the earth after a year in heaven. Poetic sentences i want tattood on my body

Covenant of salt (18k, E): angry post s2 sex but very thoughtfully written

A bit of a gray area (7k, E): humour! Pining! Bangers of lines!

I’m the treasure baby, i’m the prize (9k, E): crowley is ‘working’ at mrs sandwich post s2. She gets him <3

Drinking buddies & diaries (31k, not rated): currently reading and enjoying. Crowley reads aziraphale’s diaries…

Jesus etc (7k, G): going to rec one of my own three s2 fix-its, this one is about aziraphale and crowley trying to distract jesus to postpone the second coming, the most lighthearted one lol

I invite anyone to rec more season 2 fix-its, their own or others’

#fells book club #good omens fic recs #good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #my asks

[hedgehog-moss]

My top 10 nonfiction reads of 2023 (the asterisked ones are in French with no translation as of yet) :

Belle Greene, Alexandra Lapierre

The Indomitable Marie-Antoinette, Simone Bertière

Reporter: A Memoir, Seymour Hersh

Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, Erich Schwartzel

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Patrick Keefe

Servir les riches, Alizée Delpierre*

La Comtesse Greffulhe : L’ombre des Guermantes, Laure Hillerin*

Le Courage de la nuance, Jean Birnbaum*

The Book Collectors of Daraya, Delphine Minoui

Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement, Hawon Jung

#book recs #i haven't finished the last one yet but it's been good so far! i really admire these women's resilience and solidarity #some inspiring stories of political activism + insight into aspects of korean history i didn't know about #i wanted to do a half-fiction half-nonfiction list like last year but i've read mostly disappointing fiction this year :( #my favourites were probably kivirähk's the man who spoke snakish & catherynne valente's radiance; though it wasn't as good as orphan tales #i'm reading jacques abeille's les jardins statuaires right now and it's quite frustrating because on the one hand #it's well-written and interesting with original worldbuilding. on the other i'm 300 pages in and there have been #2 female characters. the purpose of both (so far) was to have sex with the male protagonist and only 1 has a name #which makes the read feel less original and more ''same old shit as far as i'm concerned''

[exdeputysonso]

Excerpts from Child's Play: A Visual Memoir

#brad dourif #child's play #my scans #he's so pretty #especially on the ground covered in blood <3 #this book has got some great pics but rough print quality for scanning oof #i tried #thanks to dourifslover for the book rec

[fishfingersandscarves]

just a little book cover for @moorishflower 's wonderful fic Make perfect the present

#my art #fishfingersandscarves #the sandman #the sandman netflix #dreamling #dream/hob #dream of the endless #dream (the sandman) #hob gadling #robert gadling #moorishflower #fic rec #illustration #book cover

[bluebutter-art]

“...That they were all four of them drowning in the unfamiliar, and they saw in each other a raft, and clinging to one another was the only way to stay afloat.”

― R.F. Kuang, Babel: An Arcane History

#Babel #r. f. kuang #my art #Babel fanart #Robin Swift #Ramiz Rafi Mirza #Ramy #Victoire Desgraves #Letitia Price #Letty #one of those books that will stay with you forever #i havent been able to stop thinking about it for days #book rec #outfit and hair are probably not period accurate #sorry not sorry lol