#rachel neumeier

[naomilibicki]

So a while back @mage-pie recommended Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier, and as I do when I hear about a book and it sounds vaguely interesting, I chucked it on my want-to-read shelf on goodreads and mostly forgot about it.

Somewhat more recently, I went scrolling through my want-to-read shelf looking for something to buy to tide me through a family function that I expected to be boring (it was) and I decided on Tuyo, and I started reading it, but it was going pretty slowly and it's a long book so I was mostly picking away at it.

Then, yesterday, due to a confluence of circumstances including computer troubles and being at my parents' house, I found myself with a lot of time to read, and I finished the last 80% or so of the book in one gulp.

Anyway! I really enjoyed it. It opens with the main character being left as, essentially, a sacrifice to the forces that defeated his people in battle; he expects to be killed, but the enemy commander, only passingly familiar with the custom, decides he has other uses for him.

It's a very slow burn (not burn in the sense of romance; there are some hints of (het) romance towards the end of the book which might possibly become more prominent in the later books in the series, but the focus is firmly on non-romantic relationships), very much interested in exploring the culture clash between Ryo's home culture and the one in which he finds himself. There are, inevitably, parallels to real-world cultures, but the author seems to be deliberately avoiding setting up anything 1:1, and rather letting the cultures (and different physical types of humans) be their own thing. The reasons behind the conflict that kicks off the book, and the resolution of it, what in some sense might be called the "plot", has to take a back seat. This suited me just fine, but I can imagine some readers getting frustrated with it.

I really enjoyed the subtle yet pervasive magic of the world itself. One review I happened to see on goodreads mentioned wondering how the physics works, which strikes me as beside the point--of course the physics doesn't work in a world where the moon is always full on one side of a river and has phases on the other side of it. But I eat that shit up, the sense that magic isn't just something that you can do if you're a wizard, but something inherent in a world, bigger and stranger than people can comprehend or hope to control.

Anyway! I have a bad habit of not continuing series even when I like the first book and am looking forward to the next ones, so who knows when or whether I will read the rest, but I also felt that this book doesn't really need the rest; it has a perfectly satisfying ending of its own. Would recommend.

#naomi reads books #tuyo #rachel neumeier

[shsenhaji]

📚 January Reading Round-Up 📚

January was a pretty great reading month! Finished a few books I'd started in December, while also binging some new ones.

- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (good, very funny and bittersweet, full of detailed and lush descriptions, loved the last part the best, very different than the movie's plot)

- Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher (Delightful, funny, characters were a bit too self-deprecating but it worked nonetheless, all the feels)

- Manacled by Senlinyu (Very good, cried at a lot of parts, not my favourite iteration of this trope but a great addition, loved the fanart, interesting take on Draco Malfoy that I did enjoy)

- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Very good, loved the audiobook, funny and smart and heartfelt, MC has ADHD vibes, some cool twists, great intertwined flashback story structure)

- Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Edition Vol. 5 by Hiromu Arakawa (Very good, thankfully some of the scenes didn't hit me as hard as the anime, loved the humour and the art style)

- The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani (Good, very intense, loved the second half of the book more, great character development and themes)

- A Darkness at the Door by Intisar Khanani (Very very good, binged it in a day, very poetic and lyrical and angry and cathartic, loved the romance and the friendships and the ending)

- Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier (Good, loved the beginning, not quite what I was expecting for the ending, great characters and communication)

#mine #reading round-up #crazy rich asians #kevin kwan #project hail mary #andy weir #fma #manacled #dramione #intisar khanani #the theft of sunlight #a darkness at the door #tuyo #rachel neumeier #paladin's strength #t kingfisher

[im-not-the-one-youre-looking-for]

It is very important to me that, because of the differences in life expectancy between the Lau and Ugaro peoples, Aras and Ryo have roughly the same number of years left to live. The gods looked at this Lau man struggling under his curse and said We will send him someone to help him who will be with him the rest of his life. They didn’t leave him alone.

#gods-hated ha I think not #Fran 🤝 me Sometimes fantasy books are the best spiritual reading #Fran read the last book challenge #it’s so much but you have to #tuyo #Tuyo series #rachel neumeier

[mild-lunacy]

The Women in Refrigerators

I've been reading a fantasy that's not a romance by an author I didn't know for decades (for whom I make exceptions), and it's the Tuyo series I recently talked about considering. I was thinking further about books I used to read before my romance fixation began, many more of which had been written by male authors, and the issues that led me-- again and again-- to quit those books in disgust. These are books I really enjoyed-- I considered them well-written, fun, engaging. I'm still a fan of Jim Butcher and Robert Jackson Bennett and haven't written them off entirely in my mind. I plan to come back to them, but. But. The trust has been broken, with these and other male fantasy and sci-fi authors, more than once. More than twice. Many times.

Thinking about how they broke my trust-- Bennett and Butcher specifically, but also others-- I realize what they have in common is the use of fridging, or the Women in Refrigerators trope.

If you read the book(s) in question, it's not like it stands out so horribly-- I mean, there's a plot reason for what happens to kill the female love interest. (Though in one egregious case I remember, the female main character dies after she actually has a baby, with the man who becomes the male main character after her death). It's not like I can't see why the woman 'has to die'. And yet-- mysteriously-- the male best friend almost never dies. The male love interest almost never dies in a non-romantic fantasy/sci-fi that nevertheless has a love interest, written by a female author. It's always that the men feel the need to do this. It just never clarified itself to me that this is what led me to quit reading and retreat to fanfic and/or romance, again and again.

In the case of Jim Butcher, this is an author I had trusted for decades (since the Dresden books are an old series). He has killed a love interest before, but she wasn't a major character, so it wasn't so bad. It's okay to kill minor love interests-- to be clear, plenty of female authors, even female authors writing fantasy romance do this. By 'minor', I mean they aren't super integral to the series, the books don't set them up at any great length, and they're 'just' a love interest.

For example, Sarah J Maas really loves killing off early male love interests in all her fantasy book series-- like clockwork. Same with Kim Harrison. The thing is, though, these early lost love interests-- while painful-- are nevertheless very clearly not that important overall. I don't even know how to explain this properly-- but there's a way to kill off love interests that doesn't feel gross. I don't know if I'd call it 'respectful'. Maybe? The Kim Harrison Hollows books have Rachel's vampire boyfriend, Kisten, die early on. It's a big character impact moment for Rachel, just as Dresden's girlfriends die and have an impact on Harry Dresden. But not so much of an impact on him. Or perhaps it's just a more self-centered kind of impact, possibly.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I'm reasonably certain female authors in general, and Maas or Harrison in particular, wouldn't kill off one half of an 'endgame' pairing. They'd face a reader rebellion, of course. But it's not even that.

I think it's the way these women die, and how they die no matter how important they are. No matter what, the feeling becomes, a woman is just not that important. Not even if she's the main character (though that's going a little far, to be fair).

It's not that I'm saying endgame pairings should have to be sacred or untouchable. It's more subtle than that, although maybe I'd even argue that. If you've spent book after book setting up a character arc and a relationship and built many arcs on top of it, to just discard it is disrespectful both to your characters and your readers, who've been there every step of the way. I guess it's just this sudden realization that they're 'just' characters, and on top of that, 'just' a love interest, and even, possibly, 'just' a female character. That last part is almost certainly uncharitably harsh-- it's just impossible to avoid the feeling.

The thing I like about series about a single character-- the thing I look for entirely outside any interest in romantic pairings-- is just this feeling of being with characters in other worlds that I know well, that I'm enjoying spending time with. They're my friends, almost. I'm 'friends' with Harry Dresden, in a sense, moreso than a 'fan'. And this is the context in which things happen. It's not that I take things personally, but rather that I want things to resolve in a way that's satisfying and comfortable, even if death is involved. With the death of Kisten in the Hollows series, that comfort is about the main character's memory of Kisten, the way he's framed and understood and contextualized later on. Just like in real life, death exists as part of the tapestry of life, and sometimes it's sudden, shocking and raw. But in stories I enjoy, it is... appropriate.

It's a hard thing to explain, except that I know when there's a lack of that respect, that sense of appropriateness. And I know this happens with some regularity with male authors writing about women. How very cliche.

#pointless rambles #me myself and i #reader response #writing #fantasy #romanticism #rachel neumeier

[praise-the-lord-im-dead]

Wait a second, a mutual who has read the Tuyo books????????????????????

I JUST READ THEM AND THEY'RE AMAZINGGG!!!!! I saw @soldier-poet-king rec them, picked up the series, and then devoured them all over the course of five days. I just picked up her Griffon Mage series, too! <3<3<3

#Tuyo #rachel neumeier #asks

[wearethekat]

February Book Reviews: The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier

Reread, since the similar plot of Lord of Stariel reminded me of its existence. Illegitimate last-born daughter Keri unexpectedly becomes Lady of her small country when her father dies. But she's a baker who was never brought up to rule, and the disastrous reign of her father has left the protections of her country in shambles. Can she manage contentious half-brothers, traitorous staff, and worst of all, invasion threats from two much larger neighboring countries?

When I originally read this book, I tore through it at new-release pace. At a more sedate reading speed, I think the pacing issues are more obvious. After the fast beginning, a lot of the book is occupied by waiting around for something to go wrong, with a sudden sprint when everything actually happens in the last quarter of the book. This isn't helped by the fact that Keri's internal monologue tends towards anxiously worrying that she's not competent and that everything's about to go wrong, very much a la CJ Cherryh protagonist.

I'm still fond of the fairy-tale adjacent plot and the lovely prose which reminds me of Patricia McKillip, but I think this would be a better book if some of the middle bits were cut. Your taste may vary, depending on how you feel about slow pacing.

#my book reviews #february book reviews #rachel neumeier #the keeper of the mist

[saphirabluish]

Just finishes reading this one. :) 📖

#Suelen #Rachel Neumeier #books #reading #finished reading #bookworm #bookdragn #booklr #Tuyo: Book Five #Yes I'm reading them out of order #it doesn't matter cause they are not or only loosely connected #except for the main story arc

[writingonesdreams]

Learning from stories: Black dog book series

Okay Black Dog series by Rachel Neumeier is pretty awesome. I have read 2,5 of the 4 books of the series out right now, noticing certain patterns and preferences.

The first chapter starts with the three main siblings on a bus. It's the most compelling opening in have read this year. Utterly irresistible. Hints of lore, lots of conflict, one sister is drawing protective mandalas on the window, the oldest brother is protective but also far away to not get angered at the siblings in his care, there is tragedy and big life changes and lots of tension and questions about the future. I was sucked in so fast I couldn't even analyse what was working so well on the first try.

The variation of pov in the first book was very well done. It was between the oldest brother and the sister, and it was a very nice contrast between a more classic but cheerful and willful teenage heroine and something of a demonic werewolf always battling his shadow. The anger, violence and bloodlust always there, pressing on the mind, requiring constant control and boundaries from the Black dog. Very intriguing.

The second book started and continued with a major pov of a new character. So although the other characters were the known favourite ones, doing relevant plot stuff, this was quite frustrating. Yes an outsider's POV is all well and good, showing us how unnatural the things are when you aren't used to Black dogs and their rules and tempers. But fuuh. Struggled and even skipped some of the new guy's povs so much.

The third book suffers from a certain repetition of conflict structure. The build up is also very slow, so although it makes you dying to know what happens next...it also prolongs this to irritating degrees. I was reminded why the cliffhanger pov switches are not my favourite. I can't immerse myself into a new conflict, when I'm so interested in the old unresolved one. Just doesn't work.

I def enjoy something that might be Neumeier trademark in Tuyo series that shows in Black dog world as well - how loaded all the interactions are. How someone looks, where everybody stands, what tone, what attitude, shifting weight, all of these are deeply meaningful things to track that decide what happens. Black dogs are always fighting for dominance, a direct stare is a threat and someone has to be meek and agreeable even when they are suggesting a really good idea. It made the first book incredibly tense and juicy, when all the positions and stares ment something.

The threat of violence and killing ofc makes this more significant. You pick the wrong fight and you die, you aren't accepted, you challenge someone, you don't control your shadow or your bloodthirsty instincts...excellent conflict material.

Expect it gets kinda old in the third book. I don't believe anymore the great Master of Dimilioc wolves is going to kill an innocent human or an insolent stray dog, so the tension doesn't work or if it does, it's tiring and repetitive at best.

The insertion of more characters is again very frustrating. Why make such strong main characters and then switch povs or distract with insignificant side characters? This might be my preference for small casts and following my favourites, but still. When you insert new povs, it should bring something to the plot or theme, and not drag away from the really interesting parts you read the book for. Or the new cast failed to be interesting, which is a flaw of it's own.

Obviously Rachel likes to go on quest with side-characters, she made separate books for them in the Tuyo series and several short story collections following Black dog side characters...but I def like it more, when the sidies get their own book and space and don't clutter the main storyline and the spotlight.

I'm also getting tired of the lore. Could it be that after years I have finally reached my limit with fantasy books, feeling like all the made up stuff about hunting demons and witches just doesn't bring me anything? Fantasy lore is supposed to be fun, right? Does it have to do anything else? Is it required to teach you something? I don't think it does, but it certainly helps if it does. In a by the way way. Plus authors often have to figure out and learn a lot of real research stuff to build their worlds and lore...I guess I usually don't feel so frustrated about learning so obviously useless made up things? It it flawed fantasy world enjoyment or does is it not supposed to teach anything and I have been keeping with one genre for too long?

Or is it that I'm again more interested in the relationships and less in the plot? The first book managed well enough, but the climax fell kinda flat. Disappointing. I didn't feel anything. The aftermath rocked though.

At the same time I feel like the slice of life filter stuff about cooking and Christmas shopping really drags in the short stories, so what exactly is the issue? That the characters don't seem to be involved with anything else other than their supernatural parts of the world? They are fun urban fantasy demonic werewolves parts, but really, you gotta have other interests than that right.

In any case, I def enjoy the killing, hunting, danger situations more than the slice of life stuff of this book. But I also get tired of the lore, the repetitive artificial tensions I don't believe in after knowing the characters so well, and the addition of new povs and focus on new characters is just frustrating. I don't care about you! I want my fave ones! This issues is what comes with writing a series. When you read a book series, you expect to read the same world and characters, have continuation of their journeys (or different adventures in episodic plots). Not to have change of POVs - you would read a new series or it's own series or books for that.

Also the third book focuses a lot on human politics and military and senators power abuse...and I guess it's a good reminder why I don't like urban fantasy with the fantasy world disclosed to humans. Cause of this byrocratic political human nonsense. If I read a book about werewolves, I don't care what weak little humans are doing. Esp if they are just doing stupid stuff at the supernatural creatures complete mercy.

On the other hand if humans do get dangerous I get disappointed that the supernatural cherries aren't winning...ehhh.

There is a human brother to the three supernatural siblings main characters. The author works so hard to make him stand out despite his lack of powers...or maybe it's him trying to stand out and be useful and valued as much as possible, which makes sense, but it's still annoying. You are trying too hard, buddy. It just pushes on my disbelief too much to have a 17 years old control and boss around tactical werewolf leaders, cause he is so smart. Pche. Especially since I don't really see him say or think anything all that excellent, he just constantly underlines his smartness...and conveniently his siblings go WAY too much of their way to remind us how incredibly smart he is. To ridiculous degrees.

If you have a human character among overpowered magical ones, and you want to make them special, make sure they actually know something extraordinary and not just have everyone around them repeat that they do.

#writeblr #bookblr #black dog #rachel neumeier #fantasy books #review #spilled ink #book thoughts #maybe I should make a sorting of the characters that might help

[soldier-poet-king]

hello!! no pressure to answer this but i was wondering do you have any recommendations for books, specifically books that made you feel things very deeply? i know that's vague and weird but like i also love the goblin emperor/baru cormorant/similar books as you and i was wondering if you had any faves you'd like to share :) i am looking for a book that will put me in agony in a good way lol

HELLO FRIEND

okay so I am a Big Emotional Dummy so everything makes me feel very deeply, whether or not it's actually any good. So I'll try to keep it to recs that I felt alot while reading, after reading, and I think are actually good.

Also idk if you want specific genres or sticking to fiction, so I'm just gonna throw a whole whack of things at you, hope that's ok!!! I'll also try to avoid super popular recs (like trc or ursula k le guin) not because i love them less, just because you've probably already heard of them?

Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard - probably my current fave book and protag, read it twice in less than a year despite it being like 1200 pages, if i loved it less i could talk about it more, and without crying. maybe it's niche and imperfect, but to ME? book of all time

The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner - fave book series for more than a decade, makes me experience shrimp emotions that nothing else will ever be able to replicate

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - how did a portal fantasy meets psychological horror become actually the most existentially comforting book in the world

Tuyo - Rachel Neumeier - technically a series, with 3 main novels and other novels and novellas about other characters (which i enjoyed less but still), but def start with tuyo. I fully went in expecting to not like it At All and was blown away???? I wept. I still weep. I can't explain why I love it without spoilers but it's technically a fantasy war story and yet is almost entirely character driven

Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antione de Saint-Exupery -reading this rn and technically it's billed as a memoir and adventure novel but actually its an existential meditation on the nature of human interaction and the soul and definitely comes from the same core as The Little Prince

If you HAVENT read the cemeteries of amalo/thara celehar spinoff of the goblin emperor PLEASE do, in many ways i love them even more than tge bc thara is up there with kip mdang in terms of characters i cant talk about without crying because it's too personal

The Sparrow Duology - Mary Doria Russell - PLEASE check the trigger warnings, unlike most of the recs on this list, this falls way more to the side of Baru in terms of dark content, but also it's maybe the closest I've ever come to being at peace

I'm definitely missing things, but these are all the books that have made me want to chew drywall in the last 2 years. I've also linked my goodreads here with the caveat that my ratings skew high because i am very much a 'i didnt say it was good, i said i enjoyed it/was entertained' type person. also i have read a lot of trash YA. oops. like yes some of it is real bad but also some of it makes me Feel Some Things even (or especially??) when it's real bad.

Friends pls chime in with your recs, and also please rec things to me!! Am seeking new and interesting emotions previously unknown to humankind.

#recs open to everyone EXCEPT rae who is spiders georg and recs me books every week #AND I CAN NEVER CATCH UP DFJHASKDL #i mean rae i love u and ur recs are so good but GIRL IM SLOW #anyway. 3 of the books on this list are rae recs so. yknow. shrimp emotions #fran reads #looking at my faves shelf on gr and like #ohhhh there is some cringe there except cringe is dead i killed it #yes terribly plotted dumb ya book is there bc it UNDERSTOOD MY EMOTIONAL ANGUISH AGED 18 #and made me want to live #so there ya go #i am inventing all new emotions everyday babeyyyy

[aldieb]

it’s the yearly books post 📚 i read 52 this year (so nice and even!) which is a 6% increase from last year’s 49. although it doesn’t really show on this list, the overarching theme turned out to be a bunch of shorter stuff (graphic novels and novellas). here’s what we’ve got:

best fiction: winner is still a stranger in olondria by sofia samatar. 3 runners up = the spear cuts through water by simon jimenez, the actual star by monica byrne, and the name of the rose by umberto eco

best series: also extremely obviously, foreigner by c. j. cherryh, despite the fact that i’m less than halfway through. made me realize the true meaning of the word “blorbo.” the three-body problem series by cixin liu gets an honorable mention just because it ate my brain for a while.

best nonfiction: the wounded storyteller by arthur w. frank, with the faraway nearby by rebecca solnit as the runner-up. i read a lot of bad and mediocre nonfiction for professional development reasons and am excited to not do that next year!

worst book: i also read lessons in chemistry by bonnie garmus for work purposes. the reason for this verdict can be encapsulated in the fact that the protag’s hair is described as being the color of “burnt buttered toast.” what does it mean

books read aloud with friends: (new category bc i realized it would be fun to capture these, and many are rereads so i don’t include them in my total count.) part of the dispossessed by ursula k. le guin, a tree grows in brooklyn by betty smith, tarashana by rachel neumeier, and the unknown shore by patrick o’brian + all of tuck everlasting by natalie babbitt and the age of innocence by edith wharton + also a christmas carol by charles dickens, but that’s a Yearly Event so i won’t note it down again.

#yearly reading retrospective #i’m pulling the trigger now bc i’m simply not finishing the iliad this year. too many things in the next 2 weeks #that last list is insane actually. what else are you gonna do when you talk on the phone w long-distance friends all the time i guess

[writing-whump]

What an interesting set of questions! So maybe two last ones? 📚 & 🗑️?

Hey, nonny!

📚 Who's your favorite author (or a few of them)?

Rachel Neumeier hits the spot for me with her books. So much focus on friendship, caretaking, consideration and just people being nice and polite to each other? I love it. And her werewolf series is top notch. That's packs and world and siblings done right and complex.

Then fantasy authors like Michael J. Sullivan, Christopher Paolini, Annette Marie,...usually I like the book series more than a specific author tbh.

You know I gotta say @bellysoupset at this point, cause she is basically what I read the most these days lol. Hits all the spots. Writing, characters, conflict, comfort, everything.

🗑 How hard is it for you to delete writing that gets cut?

I trick my brain by putting the cut words into a new doc. That way it doesn't feel lost, I can return to it or get inspired later. I usually don't return to it lol, but it helps to let it go.

When something needs to be cut, it just needs to - as long as it improves the overall chapter/scene, then so be it.

Thank you for asking!💙✨️

#ask #on writing #Soup is basically my muse #how lucky it is to have your fave author be like real so you can interact with them? #so lucky

[autistpride]

How many of these famous autists do you recognize? And this isn't even a complete list!

So many amazing wonderful people are autistic. I will never understand why people hate us so much.

Actors/actresses/entertainment:

Chloe Hayden

Talia Grant

Rachel Barcellona

Sir Anthony Hopkins

Dan Akroyd

David Byrne

Darryl Hannah

Courtney Love

Jerry Seinfeld

Roseanne Barr

Jennifer Cook

Chuggaaconroy

Stephanie Davis

Rick Glassman

Paula Hamilton

Dan Harmon

Paige Layle

Matthew Labyorteaux

Wentworth Miller

Desi Napoles

Freddie Odom Jr

Kim Peek

Sue Ann Pien

Henry Rodriguez

Scott Steindorff

Ian Terry

Tara Palmer -Tomkinson

Albert Rutecki

Billy West

Alexis Wineman- Miss America contestant

Athletes:

Jessica- Jane Applegate

Michael Brannigan

David Campion

Brenna Clark

Ulysse Delsaux

Tommy Dis Brisay

Jim Eisenreich

Todd Hodgetts

John Howard

Anthony Ianni

Lisa Llorens

Clay Matzo

Frankie Macdonald

Jason McElwain

Chris Morgan

Max Park

Cody Ware

Amani Williams

Samuel Von Einem

Musicians:

Susan Boyle

Elizabeth Ibby Grace

David Byrne

Johnny Dean

Tony DeBlois

Christopher Dufley

Jody Dipiazza

Pertti Kurikka

James Jagow

Ladyhawke

Kodi Lee

Left at London

Red Lewis Clark

Abz Love

Thristan Mendoza

Heidi Mortenson

Hikari Oe

Matt Savage

Graham Sierota

SpaceGhostPurp

Mark Tinley

Donald Triplett

Aleksander Vinter

Comedians:

Hannah Gatsby

Robert White

Bethany Black

Scientists/inventors/mathematians/Researchers:

Damian Milton

Bram Cohen

Michelle Dawson

Carl Sagan

Writers:

Neil Gaimen

Mel Bags

Kage Baker

Amy Swequenza

M. Remi Yergeau

Sean Barron

Lydia X Z Brown

Matt Burning

Dani Bowman

Nicole Cliffe

Laura Kate Dale

Aoife Dooley

Corrine Duyvus

Marianne Eloise

Jory Flemming

Temple Grandin

John R Hall

Naomi Higashida

Helan Hoang

Liane Holliday Willey

Luke Jackson

Rosie King

Thomas A McKean

Johnathan Mitchell

Jack Monroe

Caiseal Mor

Morenike Giwa- Onaiwu

Jasmine O'Neill

Brant Page Hanson

Dawn Prince-Hughs

Sue Robin

Stephen Shore

Andreas Souvitos

Sarah Stup

Susanna Tamaro

Chuck Tingle

Donna Williams

Leaders:

Julia Bascom

Ari Ne'eman

Sarah Marie Acevedo

Sharon Davenport

Joshua Collins

Conner Cummings

Kevin Healy

Poom Jenson

Amy Knight

Jared O'Mara

David Nelson

Shaun Neumeier

Master Sgt. Shale Norwitz

Jim Sinclair

Judy Singer

Dr. Vernon Smith

Artists:

Miina Akkijjyrkka

Danny Beath

Deborah Berger

Larry John Bissonnette

Patrick Francis

Goby

Jorge Gutierrez

Lina Long

Johnathan Lerman

Julian Martin

Haley Moss

Morgan Harper Nichols

Tim Sharp

Gilles Tehin

Willem Van Genk

Richard Wawro

Poets:

David Eastham

Christopher Knowles

David Miedzianik

Henriette Seth F

#autism acceptance #autism acceptence month #autism #asd #autistic pride #autistic #actually audhd

[msmargaretmurry]

12, 15, 19

12. book/book series i wish i could read for the first time again: well first of all i have a terrible memory so if i wait long enough i can read anything again for the first time. BUT there was this fantasy series by robin hobb i was obsessed with in high school, which i have recently learned is officially called the "realm of the elderlings" series but at the time i was reading i did not know that. anyway i keep thinking about rereading them because i haven't for over a decade and there are MORE books in the series now!! they might not hold up to my adult tastes, and i remember so vividly how deeply engrossed i was when i first read them, like, hiding in the hotel bathroom on family vacation after everyone had gone to sleep to keep reading levels of engrossed, and i would love to experience that again.

15. an underrated book: this is a tough one lol. i so rarely see people calling books i liked bad; it is so much more common for me to see people calling books i didn't like good. i just scrolled all the way back through my goodreads and the best answer i can come up with is "tuyo" by rachel neumeier which as you know we read for book club and as you know we thought was great but it only has ~500 ratings/~100 reviews on goodreads. they're GOOD ratings and reviews but it's clearly something of a hidden gem!!

19. a book i came across randomly but ended up loving it: michigan vs. the boys by carrie s. allen. i came across it randomly and only grabbed it because it's about a girl hockey player and then despite it being in first person present tense, which i almost always find grating, and being YA, which i as an adult usually find too simple from a story perspective, i just loved it?? the author really knows her hockey, which made the sports part a joy to read, and just like, really delightful female friendship content and high-school crush content and coming-of-age content as well.

#ask #book meme

[im-not-the-one-youre-looking-for]

Still recovering from the absolute near death experience that was reading the final Ryo and Aras book in Rachel Neumeier’s Tuyo world. Holy shit that book messed me up. I was fully sobbing in the cider house yesterday reading the ending.

#Tuyo #Rachel Neumeier

[mild-lunacy]

'Women are the Weaker Sex... in Sex' trope

This may be an old complaint in slash fandom, although it's actually been so long since those days, I don't remember the 'issues of the day', so to speak. Anyway, so I'm reading 'A Winter of Ice and Iron' by Rachel Neumeier. It's a great fantasy and m/f romance (unconventionally so) and I love the in-depth characterizations-- it's all good. It's just that it has a slash trope I find Problematic, although I must admit with some chagrin that I'm fine with it in m/m romance. Perhaps it's just so common I have become resigned?

Basically, the male main character is said to generally prefer men because they are... sturdier and he doesn't have to be so careful. He can let go, he can be rough with other men. It's funny, because the thing about Neumeier is that she generally eschews tropes and cliches, and this is definitely a cliche, at least in slash.

You could certainly argue it makes sense, both in this m/f book and when it's used in most m/m romance, because often enough the male character isn't fully human, but is a werewolf, vampire, demon or what have you. So he has a lot of power and it's sort of A Lot even for him to deal with. This 'iron self-control' narrative is itself a cliche of Western masculinity to the point where making him a werewolf or whatever is just... kind of an exaggeration rather than a fantasy, almost. This is an archetype more than a trope at bottom, in many ways. And archetypally, of course, that self-controlled powerful man is not gay, but it's a logical enough progression. Sort of like an argument of reductio ad absurdum, perhaps. Still, it bothers me because I don't think it's meant to be absurd. People believe it. That makes it problematic, especially so in a book that displays no major glaring 'issues'.

Many women probably prefer gentleness, but this (in my opinion) is in response to abuse, not to 'loss of control' or roughness. If anything, reading romance as I do, I notice women fantasize heavily about 'safe' violence in sex. Of course, in this book's context, it makes sense that the male main character has this issue, because his father was abusive and so he's extremely sensitive to that potential in himself. So perhaps this is not meant to be the authorial intent but merely his male lover's self-serving interpretation of the man's trauma. The character's lover is reassuring himself, while the bisexual male main character is traumatized and reacting to a history of abuse, so maybe I should take this characterization of his needs with a grain of salt. Especially because he's not in a sexual relationship with the female main character yet.

Anyway, to be honest, I doubt I'm supposed to take this claim of the lover's uncritically. He claims there won't be that freedom to be rough within sex with any woman, but how would he know their dynamic? While I doubt the male main character will be rough with her, this is primarily due to her magic (more or less), and the fact that she doesn't fear him, which soothes him. Is it 'better' to let go and have the safe space for sexual violence, or is it 'better' for your partner to be able to help you stabilize your emotional self-control?

In the real world and not a fantasy scenario, this is probably like asking if self-medicating with (gay) S&M or actually getting therapy for your emotional issues is better. Probably the latter, huh?

I intended to write this to assert women are actually better at endurance and handling pain than men. I mean, sex shouldn't be about endurance, but it's like... well... at least women self-lubricate. Potentially, even rough sex is actually easier. It's also not like women's bruises are somehow more debilitating for them. It's entirely a mental block, not a fact of gender essentiallism. Like, if it's not your kink to hurt women, I guess that's great? Although a little patronizing. But you can't really claim that about this character, either. It's not that he doesn't want to indulge, he's just afraid to lose control to violence. And this is the sort of thing that an emotional safe space can resolve. I'd bet it's more about the trust that the male main character has with his lover that made the biggest difference, rather than their gender. And given that trust can exist between a man and his wife... well.

To be honest, like I said, I can't see him ever hurting her, emotional safe space or not. At the same time, all the other characters who say the same thing about him are actually wrong, because I don't think he'd be 'gentle' on purpose, at least not entirely. It's because her presence simply allows this natural behavior to emerge, IMO. The result is because it's not a real sexual need of his, in my opinion, but rather kind of an emotional side-effect of a magical issue. Since the female character helps create calm, he's unlikely to still need that release valve with her. And you could probably argue that it wouldn't work even if he still needed that release, but this is because they just don't have that top/bottom power exchange dynamic. You can't really argue it's about gender in their dynamic. She's not his bottom, she's his equal partner. Even though these two roles can coexist, I don't think they could in this case.

Normally, I actually think that too would irritate me, if it's a case of Madonna vs Whore stereotypes, but he doesn't actually idealize her (or overly sexualize his male lover, for that matter), so it's fine. Neumeier is really good at threading that needle for me, it seems.

I dunno. At this point I'm just imagining this scenario, since this isn't the sort of book that'll actually go into it. I dunno how I feel about the long-term prospects of the male main character keeping his male lover, which I assume he will. I think the 'release valve' aspect will almost certainly change the longer he has his emotional needs met with his wife. Even though the release valve is magically driven, because his wife also impacts/steadies his magical control. So... I can only imagine his need for that sort of relief will slowly dwindle to nearly nothing. This now reminds me a little too much of (what I heard was) the plot of Fifty Shades, haha. That definitely sounded lame, but in this case I don't see a different scenario. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#pointless rambles #me myself and i #slash meta #writing #sex writing #rachel neumeier

[jamesdavisnicoll]

Tuyo (Tuyo, volume 1) by Rachel Neumeier

Two men from dissimilar cultures contend against an evil sorcerer.