#robert c. o'brien

[lakecountylibrary]

Read -> Reading -> To-Read

Read what the librarian is reading! Here's what's been on LCPL librarian Kate's shelf lately.

Just Read: A Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis

This YA thriller/mystery was enthralling. I finished the audiobook in one day. I loved the friendship between Lydia and Bristal and I was surprised by the plot twist at the very end. I recommend this book to readers who liked Sadie by Courtney Summers.

Now Reading: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

This book was recommended by my husband and I'm really enjoying it so far! I'm hoping for the best for Mrs. Frisby and her children. The animals in the book are so brave and intelligent. I can't wait to see where this story goes.

To-Read: The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

I loved Krystal Sutherland's book House of Hollow, so I've been wanting to read this book since it was published earlier this year. I'm hoping I like it as much as her last book.

See more of Kate's recs

[thefemvoid]

Robert C. O'Brien; The Silver Crown Rambles :3

Hot! so many adult characters in my mind(literally two of them) would be so damn fine!!!

We have The White haired king, the owner of the black crown, and Arthur Gates, like I know Mr.Gates and The King are Eugh~<3

Arthur Gates doesn't even have that much of a character description, unlike the King who does. But I absolutely KNOW, deep in my SOUL that these two are attractive!!! :(

Has anybody else read this book??

[denimbex1986]

'“This is a love story”, says Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s protagonist in the opening lines of Fleabag’s (2016-2019) second season, before all-but-breaking the Internet with the introduction of Andrew Scott’s Hot Priest in the episodes that follow. She utters these words to us, her eager audience, the blood that she’d been wordlessly cleaning up from her nose still drying, no context given. Scott’s Hot Priest, as the Internet has since baptised him, is heard as a disembodied voice from afar. His character’s place in our hearts comes as unexpectedly as the place he subsequently gains in Fleabag’s. This, too, is a love story. A love story between Scott and his many faces, between Scott as one of the most celebrated actors today, and us, his loyal following.

The Meet Cute

Andrew Scott has been set to mend hearts since day one. Born in 1976 in Dublin, he was brought up by an art teacher mother and a father who worked at a youth employment agency. He describes his Irishness in the form of a good measure of Catholic guilt as well as a strong and specific Irish sense of humour and eagerness to talk to people. With the support of his mother, he began attending acting classes in an effort to get rid of his childhood lisp. Despite being a shy kid, he took to the medium almost immediately, acting in TV commercials, portraying the most tragic of Shakespearian heroes in youth theatre productions, and even playing the Tin Man, who he aptly describes as ‘the guy with the heart’, in The Wizard of Oz at age 10.

Fast forward a few years, he is 17, forced to make a decision which will come to define his life and career. On the same day, he receives both a scholarship to study painting at art school and an offer to star in the independent Irish war film Korea (1995). After wrapping up on the film, he attempts studying once more, this time beginning an academic Drama course at Trinity College Dublin, the alma mater of his future co-star Paul Mescal. He shortly drops out, drawn to dreams of taking on the stage over learning about its theory in lecture halls.

So, our meet cute with Scott happens in the theatre, the affinity with which he has maintained to present-day. He describes stage acting using wonderfully-fitting cardiac imagery: ‘It goes directly into your veins. It’s pure. You start at the beginning of the story and you go through to the end.’ Most of Scott’s early career pans out on the stage. After dropping out of university, he joins Dublin’s Abbey Theatre for six months before moving to London at 22, where he graces the UK’s theatrical nucleus with roles in Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol and Joe Hill-Gibbins’ A Girl in a Car with a Man at the Royal Court Theatre.

He gathers momentum as a theatre actor, working with acclaimed director Sam Mendes on The Vertical Hour and, most recently, taking on lead roles on the West End’s most famous stages in Hamlet, Present Laughter, and a one-man adaptation of the Chekhov tragedy Vanya. Scott has spoken about the exhilaration of creating a microcosm in which anything is possible for a few hours, explaining the theatre as ‘an art form that is ephemeral’. He feels this excitement through his actor’s eyes as well as his viewers who become enraptured with his every move.

His screen debut as the lead of Cathal Black’s Korea (which Scott maintains no one has ever seen so it doesn’t really count) marks the beginning of his relationship to the world of the screen. His first few screen roles are all in war films, from his one-line-long moment of fame in Spielberg’s 1998 Saving Private Ryan (he is credited as ‘Soldier on the Beach’ no less) to Band of Brothers (2001) and 1917 (2019). But surrounding himself with weapons and violence did not come naturally to the actor; ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’, he jokes. So, he remains a heart-mender at his core.

Did you Miss Me?

It was the hearts of the masses that Scott won on the 8th of August 2010, following the release of Steven Moffat’s and Mark Gatiss’ TV phenomenon Sherlock’s first season finale. Whilst this was well over a decade ago, the world has still not recovered from Scott’s debut as sexy, playful, devilish baddie Jim Moriarty. Sherlock became, for its loyal fanbase of ‘Cumberbitches’ including my own teenage self, a religion in its own right. I endlessly rewatched the sparse selection of movie-long episodes, committing all iconic lines to memory for future quoting to my middle-school friendship group. The show’s force was undoubtedly fed by Scott’s unforgettable performance as Moriarty, who would become one of the most recognisable TV villains of the century. Scott’s face became synonymous with catchphrases like ‘IOU’ and ‘did you miss me?’. He describes the almost overnight change where he went from peacefully riding the tube and walking around London to having his photo secretly taken by fans in public and being given CDs of fan-made videos shipping Moriarty and Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) as initially freaky, even odd, but also says that it doesn’t bother him now.

I Love You. It’ll Pass.

Perhaps the Sherlock fanbase was good practice for the still larger, more explosive Internet phenomenon that Scott was about to become the centre of. Hot Priest could never have existed without Scott. Literally, because Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whom Scott calls ‘one of my main homies’, wrote the character specially for him. The pair’s bond spans a good 15 years of friendship. Waller-Bridge has nothing but praise for her old friend, describing him at once as ‘an absolute pixie of mischief’ and someone who ‘can stop time with his honesty’.

What made us fall in love with Hot Priest was less the Catholic guilt that haunts so many of us (though apparently Scott’s performance led directly to an increase in searches of religious porn by a whopping 162 percent) and more the sheer honesty that emanated from his performance. At its core, the love story between Fleabag and Hot Priest is one that ends with no ‘happily ever after’ in spite of all the love that is left lingering. Beneath the endlessly-memefied closing sequence at the bus stop by night (you remember the one) lies such a raw yet universal experience of love which we can all connect to. We can’t always be with the person we love, whether that is because the world doesn’t accept our love, or because the practical rhythms of adult life get in the way. ‘Not all love stories end the same way’, Scott reminds us.

Scott has stated countless times that his most recent roles have all been punctuated by a certain humanity. Though the name Andrew Scott has become synonymous with the image of the screen villain – think Jim Moriarty, the Bond franchise’s C, Tom Ripley in Steven Zaillian’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, and O’Brien in the 75th-anniversary audiobook of Orwell’s 1984 – Scott vehemently opposes labels such as ‘troubled’, ‘psychopath’ and ‘villain’ when describing his darker roles. His true mastery of the roles comes from the humanity he extends to such outsider characters. For what emerges from his darkest performances is a fervent empathy, an extended arm, an understanding that life beyond the margins is lonely, difficult to survive, and that we all deserve to be loved. Scott seeks to understand his characters’ natures before their actions, to see the three-dimensional life in them. As he so wonderfully puts it in relation to his latest venture into darkness, ‘there’s Tom Ripley in all of us’.

You Are Always on My Mind

Such an understanding of the outsider shines through Scott’s latest cinematic masterpiece as the lead of Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers (2023). Scott plays so subtly with the transcendental loneliness that emanates from the film. He describes feeling the importance of the film as both his first substantial lead role and simultaneously a queer role, revealing that he wore some of his own clothes in the film and often phoned his parents and siblings to ask about details of his own childhood in the 80s. Whilst he tapped into his own experiences growing up as a queer person – homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in Ireland until 1993 – in a profoundly-personal way, Scott nonetheless maintains that his process as an actor in the film was founded on an exploration which transcends his queer identity.

Scott has expressed his ambivalence at being pigeonholed into the ‘gay actor’ category in the past. Sure, he has provided our community with some of the most sensitive performances in queer cinema this century, from Welshman and owner of the Gay’s The Word bookshop Gethin Roberts in Matthew Warchus’s Pride (2014) to All of Us Strangers and now Ripley. But there is another not-so-positive side to this labelling. The BBC recently faced backlash following a BAFTA red carpet interview with Scott in which the reporter implied that Scott had seen Barry Keoghan’s genitalia and knew how big it was. Speaking about the slew of questions he incessantly faces about his sexuality in the press, Scott argues that ‘the problem is it becomes your schtick. Frankly, I feel like I’ve got just a bit more to offer than that.’

In fact, a running theme of many of Scott’s forays with the press is this sense of profound sincerity. Rather than sprinting through the Q&A format, Scott often asks back as many questions as he answers, and we can imagine the glint in his eye and half-smirk forming on his lips as he does so, feeling like he is breaking the rules of conventional stardom. He has maintained a certain boy-next-door energy; he even describes his dress sense as that of an ‘11-year-old’: scuffed trainers, colourful T-shirt, hoodie, and all. He has often expressed a desire to talk to his fans rather than be the object to their secret photos of him on the tube and in Tesco’s. Even though we must steer clear of the parasocial relationships that often plague such iconic figures as Scott, there is nonetheless an undeniable feeling that he lets us know him, just a little, and that little has become all-too-rare in the age of untouchable stardom and TikTok fame. Yes, he was GQ’s Man of the Year in 2023, and yes, he is an absolute fanboy of Taylor Swift. The two can coexist, he shows.

Scott is a lover of art in whatever form. Despite turning down the art school offer, he frequently draws strangers in the tube and attends life-drawing classes. He is also interested in philosophy, gushing about his experience attending an Alain de Botton talk on loneliness and the importance of Esther Perel’s writing about relationships in his approach to acting and life itself. Discussing in an interview the eerie atmosphere of his Ripley shoot, which occurred between Italy and America during the pandemic, he veers into a conversation on the importance of art in the midst of loneliness, grief, and love. His words dig to the core of our own love affair with him and his plethora of relatable, human performances. ‘As human beings, we tell stories’, he says. ‘Expert storytellers are really vital. No, it’s not brain surgery. But, “Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread, but give us roses.” I love that quote.’ It is through his storytelling that Andrew Scott has won our hearts. Our love story with him may have been a slow burn, but it’s only just beginning.'

[rayless-reblogs]

20 Book Challenge

I saw this challenge on a post by @theresebelivett. The idea is you pick 20 of your books to take with you to a desert island, but you can only pick one book per author and series. Here are two further guidelines I set myself: They have to be books I actually own, as if I really am gathering them up under my arms and heading to the island; and I'm defining "book" as a single volume -- so if I just so happen to have 100 novellas squashed between two covers, it still counts as one book.

We'll go alphabetically by author.

Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre. An old standby, a classic, I can jump into it at any point.

Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca. Have only read it once, but loved it and I suspect I'll get more from it each time.

Clare B Dunkle: The Hollow Kingdom. If I can only take one book from this excellent and unusual goblin series that captivated me in the mid-2000s, it'd better be the first one.

William Goldman: The Princess Bride. This book had an outsize influence on my own writing. I can quote a lot of it, but I wouldn't want to be without it.

Shannon Hale: Book of a Thousand Days. I love the warmth and humility of its heroine Dashti. Plus, Shannon Hale very kindly wrote a personal response to a fan letter I sent her years and years ago, so her work always has a special place in my heart.

Georgette Heyer: Cotillion. I don't actually own my favorite Georgette novel, but the funny, awkward, and ultimately romantic Cotillion is definitely not a pitiful second-stringer.

Eva Ibbotson: A Countess Below Stairs. Countess was my introduction to Eva's adult romances, and she is the past master of warm, hardworking heroines who should really be annoying because they're way too good to be true, but somehow you just end up falling in love with them.

Norton Juster: The Phantom Tollbooth. I first read this when I was like eight, and even for an adult, its quirky humor and zingy wordplay hold up, no problem.

Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera. Can't leave without Erik, nope, the French potboiler has got to come. Perhaps I will spend my time on the island writing the inevitable crossover fanfic, The Phantom of the Tollbooth.

CS Lewis: Till We Have Faces. Faces is my current answer for what my favorite book is, so I'm taking that, though it feels criminal to leave The Silver Chair behind.

LM Montgomery: The Blue Castle. As much as I love Anne and Emily, it came down to Blue Castle and A Tangled Web, and I'm a sucker for Valancy's romantic journey.

E Nesbit: Five Children and It. Probably the most classic Edwardian children's fantasy, though still a hard choice to make. Nesbit is another author who had a huge influence on me as a writer.

Robert C O'Brien: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. A childhood book I'm really sentimental about. I should re-read it.

Meredith Ann Pierce: The Darkangel. The first in the archaic lunar vampire trilogy. This will always be frustrating, only having the first in the series, but if I can only read the first, maybe I'll forget about how angry the third novel left me.

Sherwood Smith: Crown Duel. At one time, this swords-and-manners fantasy duet was one of my absolute favorite fandoms, and clever me has both books in one volume, so I don't have to choose.

Anne Elisabeth Stengl: Starflower. My favorite of the Tales of Goldstone Wood series. We'll have to test whether I can actually get sick of Eanrin.

JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings. I've never actually read it through as an adult and, look at that, I have a three-in-one volume. Cheating!

Vivian Vande Velde: Spellbound. I've read much of VVV's YA fantasy and liked a lot of it, but none more so than The Conjurer Princess and its fast-paced tale of revenge. The Spellbound edition includes the prequel and a bonus short story, so I'm good to go.

PG Wodehouse: The World of Mr Mulliner. There are some hilarious novels I'm leaving behind here, including all the Bertie Wooster stuff. But there are some absurdly fun Mulliner stories and this edition is like three hundred pages. That'll keep me happy for a long while on my island.

Jack Zipes (editor): Spells of Enchantment. This is an enormous compilation of western fairy tales. I've owned it since 2004 or so, and I've still never finished it. Now, on my island, I'll no longer have the excuse.

Tagging anyone else who feels like doing this!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[havewereadthis]

"Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma."

[dalekofchaos]

MCU Recast

Just for fun, I will be recasting the MCU

Notice. Because of the 30 picture limit, will not be able to do them all the pics for the fancasts.

Timothy Olyphant as Iron Man/Tony Stark

Glenn Powell as Captain America

Alexander Skarsgard as Thor Odinson

Hugh Dancy as The Hulk/Bruce Banner

Yuliya Snigir as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Jensen Ackles as Hawkeye/Clint Barton

Idris Elba as Nick Fury(if Ultimate)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Nick Fury(if 616)

Morena Baccarin as Maria Hill

Ewan McGregor as Ant-Man/Hank Pym

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wasp/Janet Van Dyne

Hiba Abouk as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff

Jesus Castro as Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff

Ryan Gosling as Star Lord/Peter Quill

Sofia Boutella as Gamora

Simon Pegg as Rocket Racoon

John Rhys-Davies as Groot

Jason Momoa as Drax the Destroyer

Maggie Q as Mantis

Ana de Armas as Nebula

Christian Bale as Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange

Katee Sackhoff as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers

Joe Keery as Spider-Man/Peter Parker

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Black Panther/T'Challa

Ben Barnes as Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

Robert Pattinson as Daredevil

Alexandra Daddario as Jessica Jones

Trevante Rhodes as Luke Cage

Lewis Tan as Iron Fist/Danny Rand

Frank Grillo as The Punisher/Frank Castle

Jamie Chung as Colleen Wing

Sonequa Martin-Green as Misty Knight

Jesse Plemons as Foggy Nelson

Amanda Seyfried as Karen Page

Yaya DaCosta as Claire Temple

Dakota Fanning as Trish Walker/Hellcat

Stephan James as Malcolm Ducasse

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Stick

Rainn Wilson as Microchip/David Liberman

Jamie Foxx as War Machine/James "Rhodey" Rhodes

Michael B. Jordan as Sam Wilson

Amy Adams as Pepper Potts

Kevin James as Harold “Happy” Hogan

Christina Ricci as Betty Ross

Léa Seydoux as Sharon Carter

Daisy Ridley as Peggy Carter

Charlie Day as Ant-Man/Scott Lang

Amandla Stenberg as Shuri

Maya Hawke as Hawkeye/Kate Bishop

Sasha Luss as Black Widow/Yelena Belova

(I'm changing the direction of the MCU Spider-Man since there would be no mind wipe at the end of said trilogy, no Iron Man Jr, Peter is in college and already an established hero, there would be no pointless change to MJ's name and I would reframe from basically copying everything about Miles and give all his traits to Peter)

Brendan Fraser as Uncle Ben Parker(flashbacks)

Jamie Lee Curtis as May Parker

Stefanie Scott as Mary Jane Watson

Dylan O'Brien as Harry Osborn

Chloë Grace Moretz as Gwen Stacy

Jake Austin Walker as Flash Thompson

Keira Knightley as Jane Foster

Stellan Skarsgård as Odin

Mark Strong as Charles Xavier

Jacob Elordi as Cyclops/Scott Summers

Liana Liberato as Jean Grey

Matt Berry as Hank McCoy/Beast

Finn Wolfhard as Iceman/Bobby Drake

Mason Dye as Angel/Archangel/Warren Worthington III

Kiki Layne as Storm/Ororo Monroe

Jared Keeso as Wolvine/James "Logan" Howlett

Wyatt Oleff as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler

Charles Melton as Warpath/James Proudstar

Sadie Sink as Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair

Petr Skvortsov as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus

Maude Apatow as Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat

Victoria Pedretti as Rogue/Ann Marie

Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Jubilee/Jubilation Lee

Olivia Rodrigo as Dazzler/Alison Blaire

Ekaterina Samsonov as Magik/Illyana Rasputina

Sonya Mizuno as Psylocke/Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock

Esme Creed-Miles as X-23/Laura Kinney

Wolfgang Novogratz as Havok/Scott Summers

Jodie Whittaker as Emma Frost

Dallas Liu as Daken

Kat Graham as Polaris/Lorna Dane

Chad Coleman as Lucas Bishop

Hunter Doohan as Banshee/Sean Cassidy

Austin Butler as Gambit/ Remy LeBeau

Will Arnett as Deadpool/Wade Wilson

Saara Chaudry as Kamala Khan

Madison Reyes as America Chavez

Isaac as Moon Knight/Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley

Andrew Lincoln as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic

Jodie Comer as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman

Paul Mescal as Human Torch/Johnny Storm

Liev Schreiber as Thing/Ben Grimm

JK Simmons as Iron Monger/Obadiah Stane

Dolph Lundgren as Crimson Dynamo/Anton Vanko(adding Dynamo as I felt not including him was a waste)

Danila Kozlovsky as Whiplash

Bob Odenkirk as Justin Hammer

Chow Yun-Fat as The Mandarin(No Trevor, he's The Mandarin and actually uses the Ten Rings against Tony)

Michael Shannon as Abomination/Emil Blonsky

Mark Gatiss as The Leader/Samuel Sterns

Jamie Campbell Bower as Loki Laufeyson

Christoph Waltz as Red Skull/Johann Shmidt

Cillian Murphy as Baron Helmut Zemo

Javier Bardem as Thanos

Jeremy Irons as Ultron

Matt Smith as Malekith

Sean Bean as Alexander Pierce

Manu Bennett as Crossbones

Iain Glen as Ronan the Accuser

Oded Fehr as Baron Mordo

Brian Cox as Ego The Living Planet

John Malkovich as Vulture

John Goodman as Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Boyd Holbrook as Bullseye

Tonia Sotiropoulou as Elektra Nachios

Jodie Comer as Typhoid Mary

James McAvoy as Purple Man/Zebediah Killgrave

Common as Cottonmouth/Cornell Stokes

Taraji P. Henson as Mariah Dillard

Barkhad Abdi as Bushmaster

Željko Ivanek as Agent Orange/William Rawlins

Wes Bentley as Jigsaw/Billy Russo

Dev Patel as Davos

Alexander Ludwig as Nuke/Will Simpson

Matthew Rhys as James Wesley

Kate Beckinsale as Vanessa Marianna

Marwan Kenzari as Bakuto

Brian Tee as Nobu Yoshioka

Lucille Soong as Madame Gao

Julianne Moore as Alexandra Reid

Eva Green as Hela

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Killmonger/Erik Stevens/N'Jadaka

Andrew Scott as Mysterio

(sidenote, Mysterio wouldn't die and would return to form the Sinister Six which would feature the villains from NWH, but it's the MCU variants, no Multiverse)

Bryan Cranston as Green Goblin/Norman Osborn

Mark Hamill as Doc Ock/Otto Octavius

Sam Worthington as Sandman

Sendhil Ramamurthy as The Lizard/Dr Curt Connors

Aaron Paul as Electro

Naomi Scott as Ghost

Henry Golding as Namor

Jason Isaacs as Magneto/Erik Lensherr

Natalie Dormer as Mystique/Raven Darkholme

Pablo Schreiber as Sabertooth/Victor Creed

King Kerim as Apocalypse/En Sabah Nur

Bryan Cranston as Sebastian Shaw

Christopher Eccleston as Bastion

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Mr Sinister

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Adam Warlock

Antony Starr as US Agent/John Walker

Ted Levine as Thaddeus Ross/Red Hulk

Charlie Clapman as Doctor Doom/Victor Von Doom

[wc-confessions]

Here's a rapid fire list of non-Warriors xenofiction novels WC fans can read. Will say I haven't read all of these, and in that case, I will not leave a comment. Obligatory Wings of Fire, Guardians of Ga'hoole, Redwall, and Watership Down recommendation. Honorable mentions go to other Erin Hunter series - Seekers, Survivors, Bravelands, and Bamboo Kingdom. Varjak Paw series by S.F. Said. Two books. Geared toward a younger audience like Warriors. I can vouch this as one of my favorites. I can see it being an acquired taste, especially for someone older, though. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. One book. Personally, I'd only recommend this book if you're super interested in learning about the inspiration for Warriors. Otherwise, its themes have aged like milk and the story isn't all too special. I will say the plot gets pretty decent and horrifying at the halfway point. The Deadlands series by Skye Melki-Wegner. Three books. I have completed the first and a read a little of the second. Geared towards a younger audience like Warriors. You can tell that the audience is younger due to the dialogue and characters. Descriptions are good and I'd imagine thrilling for the target demographic. In fact, I'd describe the books, that I've read so far, as thrilling in general. However, the "Jurassic Park meets Wings of Fire" comparison is a lie. Wings of Fire is accurate but this series has nothing to do with the Jurassic Park movies or books besides dinosaurs. It'd be closer to say "The Land Before Time meets Wings of Fire." I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for Warriors with dinosaurs. Silverwing series by Kenneth Oppel. I've only read a little of the first book, so I don't have much to talk about. I will tell you that a graphic novel has recently released! Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies. One book. About deer. No comment. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. One book. Horses. No comment. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. One book. Utahraptors. No comment. A Black Fox Running by Brian Carter. One book. Foxes. No comment. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. One book. Mice. No comment. Foxcraft series by Inbali Iserles. Three books. Foxes. No comment. The Tygrine Cat series by Inbali Iserles. Two books. Cats. No comment. The Books of the Named series by Clare Bell, more commonly known as Ratha's Creature or the Ratha series. Five books. Prehistoric Dinaelurus nimravids. No comment. I think I've listed enough in this ask, but I'll drop this xenofiction list https://www.tumblr.com/the-owl-tree/745956715298799616/xenofiction-reading-recommendation-list?source=share in case anyone wants more.

.

[rosieofcorona]

This might be a little random…. But do you have any favorite books of fiction?? I just love ur takes, so I would love to try n read the books you would like? Sorry if this seems creepy djdhdhsh, I think I’m just trying to say that I value your opinion!

hi there and thank you so much! this is not creepy; you're so sweet and i LOVE a good book rec, so here we go! in no particular order (and only loosely grouped by genre), some of my all-timers:

the hobbit, j.r.r. tolkien

the lord of the rings trilogy, j.r.r. tolkien

sabriel, garth nix

our wives under the sea, julia armfield

annihilation, jeff vandermeer

never let me go, kazuo ishiguro

watership down, richard adams

mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh, robert c. o'brien

chouette, claire oshetsky

carmilla, sheridan le fanu

lapvona, ottessa moshfegh

white is for witching, helen oyeyemi

we have always lived in the castle, shirley jackson

homegoing, yaa gyasi

the book thief, markus zusak

i'll stop myself there or i'll go on forever, but these are all bangers, imho. 💕 if you end up reading any of these and want to chat about them, i'm always happy to discuss!

[tgabingo]

The Gilded Age S3 Bingo Card Recap for 3.04 - Marriage is a Gamble

Free Spaces

Anachronistic back-fastening dress: Caught at extreme camera angles on Aurora and Dorothy in Newport, then with Bertha

Episode title drop: None this episode that I caught after two watches and a subtitle search. Let me know if I missed it somehow!

Squares to Check Off After 3.04

A scene in a church or chapel

A marriage proposal is declined: Bruce and Borden — thanks @theoriginoflove2012 !

A Tony winning actress has nothing to do

Ada in mourning

Bertha tries to pair Gladys off with a British noble: last episode for this one!

Carriage ride

Divorce mention

Gladys's wedding

Historical figure namedrop: Leonie Jerome

Historical figure shows up: J.P. Morgan

Jack becomes rich off of his clock invention

Major plot point recycled from Downton Abbey: Julian Fellowes has finally fulfilled the purpose of The Gilded Age in the first place, which was to recycle Cora and Robert's pre-canon plot in Downton Abbey of an American heiress marrying a British noble.

Minor plot point recycled from Downton Abbey: A person is married to a partner confined in an asylum for mental health reasons and cannot legally divorce them (Mrs. Bruce in TGA, Michael Gregson in Downton Abbey)

New character name recycled from Downton Abbey: Monica O'Brien (and Bertha née O'Brien), recycling Miss O'Brien

Oscar wears vertical stripes

Peggy in pink

Peggy writes a novel

Someone makes a scene at a dinner

Taissa Farmiga has something to do

Subjective Squares After 3.04

Line of dialogue recycled from Downton Abbey: I thought "Don't keep us in suspense" was a common Fellowes-ism, i.e. something normal people say that Fellowes characters say more, which I would count, but I actually only found one instance of it in DA, in Season 4 Episode 5 from Mrs. Patmore. I'll still count it. I'll also count "for the grouse" tacked on as an explanatory phrase whenever relevant, which has more instances. Let me know if you found anything else that's more objective!

Marian wears something yellow and floofy: This time floofy is objective and yellow is in the eye of the beholder as to how much yellow counts.

Someone ugly cries

Tragic backstory reveal

Blackout Preventing Squares

First episode with blackout preventing squares!

Gladys does not marry against her will

Gladys doesn't marry the Duke

Gladys leaves the Duke at the altar

Freebie Squares

First episode with freebie squares! You can choose whether or not to take a freebie square, just like with subjective squares.

Bertha says that's not how the English do it: "we're doing it the English way"

Someone says another's outfit is inappropriate for the occasion: While not stated verbatim, we did get a c-plot with Monica's dress.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a different scene in mind for a square above? Let me know in a reblog or reply!

[book--brackets]

[greater-than-the-sword]

The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien is like the ontological opposite of those books that have "Dragon" in the title but aren't about dragons. Based on the cover it looks like it's going to be about some little girl's struggles with parental divorce or leukemia or something. But it's actually about a girl's struggles with the Cult of Heironymus.

[isitfurbait]

Is the rats of nimh furbait

I've already reviewed Mrs. Frisby as a character, and frankly, it goes without saying that Don Bluth made that fur bait. I may have been to idolizing of Don Bluth's designs in the first place, but that doesn't cover the original story by Robert C. O'Brien. For that, I would say that it is perfect in its inspiration of art, world building, and story. One could argue against its furbait qualities, being that they are animals in a world of humans, which poses some strong questions. However, the anthropomorphism of each protagonist animal counters that, with the fact that our perspective is with Mrs. Frisby, rather than the people in the world around her using rodents for medical experiments in order to build empathy around the characters who are used for their rapid intelligence.

[cover-art-showdown]

This week's International Faceoff is Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah, first published in 1974.

Edit: one of these days I will get it right. The first option should read "1. Z for Zachariah (English, 1982)".

Covers are below the cut.

Trialling a new layout on request: