#anyways!!!! EXCELLENT EXCELLENT BOOK

[pondslime]

read the entirety of annihilation by jeff vandermeer in four hours—by flashlight on my living room floor—during last night's blackout. highly recommend it (the nonstop reading, not the blackout ofc)

[limerlove]

modern regency romance, enemies to lovers, violet in her mid-twenties running a bar where she services the rich and privileged in her father’s life-long legacy passed down to her. as she tries to make a name for herself, she meets you…a woman of high standard with money and influence nearly bleeding from your fingertips, every man of high society begging for your hand. they all want the fortune, the woman who has yet to be swooned by a single man, the duchess who proclaims she will marry by the end of the season, but vi comes to spoil all your plans. in all of the wrong ways.

[tenowls]

if i could draw dragons i would put temeraire in the background

[dewwshi]

i read homeland and this is mostly the impression i got

[murasaki-cha]

Me: *explaining the fact that Kitt was literally groomed into being the perfect king according to his father's ideals and constantly kept trying to please him even when he kept being compared to his brother, was never made clear of exactly what training Kai went through and does not know the full extent of their fathers abuse (shown in his bonus chapter in Reckless), felt like an outsider when it came to the familial bond between Kai, Ava and the Queen despite Kai and Ava never singling him out that's why he clung so much to their father, was literally emotionally manipulated to like Paedyn by their father as shown that he was the one that was pushing him to get close to her, was actually ok with Kai and Paedyn getting together as shown in the deleted Powerless chapter, got betrayed by the one person outside of his family who he truly considered a friend that thought he would make a good ruler when that was his biggest insecurity, was manipulated, gaslit and brainwashed by Callum for the entirety of Reckless and possibly mind controlled, was left to rule a kingdom and not grieve properly and what he truly needs is just reassurance, comfort and enough time for him to grieve surrounded with emotionally supportive people*

Other people: WELL KITT SUX! HE WANTS TO MARRY PAEDYN! HE'S RUINING MY SHIP AND I HOPE HE DIES!

Me:

[valyrfia]

turns out the secret to stopping doomscrolling is to start consuming books voraciously again. who knew.

[benevolenterrancy]

Unwind by Neal Shusterman? I really liked it at least

hmm I've never even heard of this one-- JESUS THAT'S A PLOT

OKAY yeah colour me intrigued on that one

and I've been really appreciating all the book recommendations I've been getting! Thrilled to look up ones I've never heard of, I love seeing what sort of books stick with people enough that it's a go-to recommendation! There's a few I've already put on hold at my library :3

[dandelion-roots]

[ID: a digital drawing of cooper dayton and oliver park from the big bad wolf series. cooper is sitting on a stone bench and picking glass shards out of oliver's fur, his other hand scratching oliver's head. oliver is sitting by cooper's legs and has his head on cooper's lap. End ID]

Park was still in fur, his head resting in Cooper’s lap, even though some agent had already nervously placed a pile of non-ripped, non-bloodstained clothes in a neat pile by his feet. Cooper didn’t know why he hadn’t shifted yet, but didn’t try to rush him. Just carefully picked through his fur for stray bits of glass, assembling a small collection of jagged shards beside him on the bench. - Cry Wolf (Big Bad Wolf #5) by Charlie Adhara

[firelise]

Film & TV I Think About A Lot » I May Destroy You (2020) writer/dir. Michaela Coel

Your birth is my birth, your death is my death. This book is dedicated to Terry, my best friend.

[janeways-coffees]

Ok ngl the lack of understanding of the word "diversity" by the wheel of time casting director is starting to piss me off. It's actually important to mutliple plots that there are different ethnic groups that look different and are indentifiable by those looks.

Rant/criticism below the cut

Rand needed to stand out like a sore thumb in the first few episodes. Just like? Its a plot point that the two rivers is so inbred its one of the few places there hasnt been complete breeding out of channeling- so why the fuck is cenn buie white??? Why was there a random east asian extra?? Like im sorry all the two rivers folk should be played by austrialian aboriginal or black people like madeleine madden or zoë robbins because the PLOT POINT is that theyre inbred.

The fact that you have characters from the same ethnic group played by actors from different groups diminishes the importance of that ethnicity.

I think this bothers me so much because first of all, robert jordan clearly understood that ethnicity and ethnic groups matter. When in Dumai's wells they bring together the Aiel and Cairhien and Tairens and Two Rivers Folk, perrin comments that they cant tell the Aiel on their side apart from the shaido aiel. This, im willing to bet, mirror's Jordan's experience in Vietnam. He was white and ignorant and couldn't tell his south vietnamese allies from the north vietnamese enemies. Its an important acknowledgement that this shit happens in warfare. You need uniforms because in real life you can't always tell friends from enemies on sight.

Additionaly, as someone who isn't in the in-group it matters that I can recognize my people. Growing up in a realtively white blue collar area in the states I was always quizzed on my ethnicity (they could tell I wasnt white-like-them) and then when I entered spaces with my own people I could always find them and I didnt look different.

And this is something I've seen a lot in progressive spaces. People treat ethnicity as though it's something that is a shell- that beneath your different skin tone, were all the same! (White) this isn't just a wheel of time issue, but it's an excellent case study of casting a number of actors of color while erasing the actual diversity of the story.

EDIT: i had a note in here about alanna and leave being played by very different actors despite both being from Arad Doman. Turns out Alanna is Arafellen. Oops!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2025: BLACKFISH CITY by Sam J. Miller.

Finished this last night! The jacket copy starts, "When a strange new visitor arrives in a floating city in the Arctic--humanity's last hope after the ravage of climate change--the city is entranced. She's riding an orca and has a polar bear at her beck and call," and, honestly, I'm sold (love a good floating city!).

I adored the setting and the worldbuilding--supremely cool city that was thoughtfully developed--and I loved how the narrative came together at the end. All the POV characters felt distinct (thank heck, because there were Many of them), and I had a fun time figuring out how to piece all the relationships together and percolating on The Science. Overall had a great time!

[chiropteracupola]

all my homies hate erik larson!!

[kazbiter]

"adam parrish was a miracle of moving parts, a study in survival" in case u forgot!!!! "what do you want adam to feel awake when my eyes are open" let's consider!!! "who has he ever had to love him, ever?" even!!! "I know you are not the same as him but in my head everything is always so tangled I am such a damaged thing" as well!!! "he was not robert parrish but he forgave past adam for being afraid of the possibility" in fact!! "rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done" if you'll remember!!! "it was only because he believed he had saved himself that he could imagine saving someone else" if u even care!!!

[thisbluespirit]

Films watched (1990s): THE WINSLOW BOY (1999); dir. & screenplay David Mamet (adapted from the play by Terence Rattigan). Starring Nigel Hawthorne, Jeremy Northam, Rebecca Pidgeon & Gemma Jones.

"No, not justice. Right. Easy to do justice. Very hard to do right."

[qqueenofhades]

Alice Albinia's The Britannias is a fascinating book on many levels but also the prime reason why writing about history, especially premodern history, double-especially premodern women's history, is not so easy as just quoting some writers utterly without context/critical scaffolding/enquiry/rigorous methodology and doesn't actually prove what you want it to prove, even if the point is one to which we might otherwise be sympathetic.

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! I am considering trying listening to podfics, but I have no idea where to start. Like, I read a lot of fanfic, but idk how one goes about listening to them? Is it like an app, or a download it kind of thing, or what? Do you have any advice or specific recommendations? In the past I have really, really struggled with books on tape because I cannot focus on just listening, but I like listening to like sort of documentary-ish videos while sewing and that's just a person talking, so probably I would be able to focus on audiobooks or podfics now?