#with a particular shape for the premise and for the mcs and their dynamic… that made it feel much easier to dive in

[summerendroll]

here’s what i have read so far in 2025 hehe. thoughts under the cut for the curious and the nosy like me

annihilation was a re-read. lovely as always. i got a little bored rereading authority but WILL do it in my journey to reread the trilogy before getting to absolution.

the ruthless lady’s guide to wizardry was a charming window in a literary world i care not to venture deeper into aside from, perhaps, little peeks like this… ate it all up in one day because i liked the protagonist and the murder mystery element lol. a solid like 6.5/10 probably idk

raybearers is a fun one, a girl whose mother enslaved a wish-granting fairy and had a child with him all for the purpose of creating the only assassin which could kill the crown prince whos divine blood makes him immortal to all but old age and the betrayal of those who love him most. that said i dont think we needed it to be 11 whole people because we don’t actually spend much if any time with a good chunk of them and it kind of weakens the emphasis on how powerful their bond is and how much they mean to the protagonist… but otherwise it was sweet and i couldnt help but enjoy the heavy handed feminist messaging #girlboss <- saying this ironically i promise

redemptor continues raybearers energy and it’s lovely to see our tarisai making even more bonds with other women + same critique as before perhaps emphasized by a major plot point being tarisai having to form her own council and we dont even know anything about at least half of them? buuuut i started it this morning and read it all day LOL. if these were more popular zuri would be everyones little meow meow and i couldnt even argue.

the maid and the crocodile is my favorite of the three though lol it convinced me to go back and read redemptor. what can i say maybe i just enjoy the howls moving castle-likes genre i’ve found and i really liked small sade as protagonist. same feminist messaging as before but with more emphasis on disability and workers rights? mwah. want to add it to my actual bookshelf

the first emily wilde books - sadly TO ME a case where the first book is best and my interest dwindles as they go on, never got super far in the third, but tbf i didn’t think they were going to be my style at all. great autistic swaglessness on miss wilde. was fun to see her recordings of the faerie world and having to deal w the helpless dandy she unfortunately loves but my interest seems to be directly and inversely tied to their relationship status and as they became officially securely together i kind of stopped caring as much lol?

uprooted was one of my favorites of the hmc-likes and i may be biased because i’m a really big fan of how much more it lingered on the relationship between the mc and her childhood girl friend than with the love interest sometimes ?? i liked it i liked the vibe i like the cover idk. sooo much happens. i enjoyed the love interest but i have more problems with him than any of the others. tbf the mc has the same issues with him. theyre figuring it out.

where the dark stands still was another favorite as an hmc-like and the most obvious about being one lol i mean there was a literal stolen heart and a sarcastic fire-associated sprite sidekick and everything. i liked it a lot though i wont lie. i liked the writing style and our more-emo howl and u KNOW i love a fucked up house

[takaraphoenix]

Hey, I was just wondering do you have any tips for revealing character backstories? I have a story that relies heavily on my MC's and certain other's backstory but I don't wanna infodump. I'm doing research into it but I figured it'd help if I asked another writer directly and well, I've read your work and you're definitely someone worth asking for advice.

Mmh. That’s always a hard thing. Because, in a way, it’ll just... always be an info dump in a way, since the reader/viewer didn’t watch the character’s entire life so obviously you, as the author, have to bring it in some way.

There’s certain methods that I, personally, think work very well, but in the end you gotta test what fits you as a writer best - and also what fits this particular character and situation best, since that can vary too.

One way is the expositional narrator. The one who, when it fits, brings up bits and pieces of the character’s past. Not necessarily all at once, just bits one by one throughout the beginning.

A way to do so can be that you have a plot that reflects the character’s life - you see this method a lot in medical drama shows. Where the patient of the episode conveniently enough goes through what the main character is currently experiencing and they can use the patient as a mirror to themselves. This kind of writing can work very well for exposition, because the mirrored plot happening in the present time is a great way to transition into flashbacks, or simply reminiscing thoughts on the main character.

You have to be careful with this one though, because if the parallels are too big or if it goes on for too long, it comes off as far too forced. Say your main character’s important backstory involves that they were abused as a child; mirroring it by them meeting a kid in the exact same situation is too much, but if it differs enough while still staying in the same line it can work as a very good and plausible reminder for your character, prompting the exposition/flashback.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of flashbacks. Many prefer it all written out in a narrative part, and I do know that I write that a lot myself and for certain things it does work better, but generally a flashback that a) breaks the chunk of text that can be hard to focus on and b) gives a more detailed insight into how it was - it’s... very often, the better solution there.

There’s a more tuned down version of the mirrored plot.

You can use small memory triggers. Like, the earrings they see in the shop-front remind them of what their now dead mother loved to wear, to make a very simple example. Or they meet someone with eyes as blue as those of their first, tragic love. Such small, coincidental reminders can also be a good gateway into weaving some exposition in.

I gotta admit though, I am also not someone who minds the infodumb. Like, you got to tell me this piece of backstory because it’s vital for the understanding of the story? Just give it to me.

It’s why most of my multiple chapter stories start off with a prologue set some years before the story or something, because I like to use the prologue as a set-up of the world and that, of course, includes a certain degree of infodump. By putting it into this separate, shorter entity within the story, it’s... in a proper order, at least to me. A whole chapter can be straining, if it’s just run-down it can be just as exhausting, but by prefacing it as a prologue, especially due to the implications in the whole premise of what a prologue is, it justifies putting some explanations, some exposition, right there.

Like, say, Good Omens, if you’ve watched that? The first six minutes, the prologue of the show, are basically just one infodump of what kind of world this is, how it works, where our main characters come from, what their origins, basic characteristics and motivations are. And those six minutes are genuinely my favorite part of the show, because they’re written in a lighthearted, fun and intriguing manner. Or, on a larger scale, my favorite episode, where we literally step back from the whole plot of the show to just spend half an hour in flashbacks to explore the main characters’ dynamic - that was a huge, wildly disconnected infodump, but it was the best episode ofthe show.

So, I guess that’s what it boils down to. The way you write it, regardless of what method you choose. You could literally have your narrator just recounting all the important events, but if you do it dull and as though they’re just listing things off, then it will fall flat, while if you include some lightheartedness in it, it can be great. Say, the opening of the first Percy Jackson book is that in a way too, but it’s framed and phrased in a way that gets you hooked, you get some basic info and then immediately want more.

To recap, because I feel like I lost my train of thoughts a couple times there:

Put some - the major, the biggest point - of your exposition if possible into a prologue to set it properly up

Use plotlines that mirror whatever you want expositioned about your character to transition into exposition; be mindful not to make it too similar

Use memory trigger events/objects to justify writing flashbacks

Don’t just list it off; put emotion and, if it fits tonally, humor into your exposition and then even the longer parts of exposition don’t feel like they’re being dumped onto the reader

I hope this was in any way or shape helpful! And I wish you good luck with your writing! <3

[televinita]

Books Read in 2019: The Why

In a tradition I accidentally started for myself and now quite enjoy, at the end of the year I look back at my reading list and answer the question, why did you read this particular book? 

Below, the books are split into groups by target readership age, plus nonfiction at the end. This year I have added the category “how I heard of it” as well, because I just think that info is neat.

FICTION

The Visitor - K.L. Slater. 2018. Read because: Ten episodes of The Good Cop weren't enough, so I tried to find something w/ similar characters, and this looked kinda like "TJ as a slightly more withdrawn weirdo." By the time I realized it wouldn't work due to being British, I was too excited by the prospect of a thriller to stop.

How I heard of it: Googling keywords

Like the Red Panda - Andrea Seigel. 2004. The back cover and first few pages reminded me of a friend I had once.

How I heard of it: Library

The Lost Vintage - Ann Mah. 2018. What's that? You've got some secret family history/a mystery from the past to be solved using old personal papers, including a diary? My jams.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls (4th ed.) - Emilie Autumn. 2017. I googled for books that promised unique formatting/art design, and Emilie Autumn has always been an intriguing enigma to me.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name - Margaret Craven. 1967. I know this title, but not why -- when I tripped over it in the teen* section and saw how tiny it was, I decided to find out what it was about. (*it's there because it's often taught in schools. It's here because its intended audience is adult.)

Escape - Barbara Delinsky. 2011. Went looking for an audiobook -- the cover with a woman standing on a small bridge amidst the woods drew me in (I can't find that cover on the internet though), and the idea of abandoning responsibility and driving off to a small town sounded like my dream.

How I heard of it: Library

Saul and Patsy - Charles Baxter. 2003. Another search result from my attempt to cast Josh Groban in a novel -- Midwestern-set and a man very much in love with his wife, no worries about the relationship being wrecked? Sweet! (though ultimately, I had to mentally recast)

How I heard of it: Googling

California - Edan Lepucki. 2014. Needed an audiobook. The title and green forest cover caught my eye, and the off-the-grid life + promise of a mysterious and possibly suspicious settler community described in the plot appealed to me.

How I heard of it: Library

The Lost Queen of Crocker County - Elizabeth Leiknes. 2018. Woman moves back home to rural Iowa in a book described as a "love letter to the Midwest"? Look at all these good choices.

How I heard of it: Library

All The Things You Are - Declan Hughs. 2014. Was looking for a different book w/ this title, but saw Spooky Dark House cover + wild summary and wanted to know how that could possibly happen / what the explanation was.

How I heard of it: Library catalog

Tumbledown Manor - Helen Brown. 2016. Cover love. A book about restoring a historic family manor?? BRING ME THERE.

How I heard of it: Library

The War Bride's Scrapbook - Caroline Preston. 2017. IT'S LITERALLY A SCRAPBOOK. I loved her other one like this.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson. 1938. Rewatched the movie and needed to relive an alternate take immediately (especially for more Michael).

How I heard of it: special features on the DVD

April & Oliver - Tess Callahan. 2009. This just screamed "(slightly less storybook) Ned/Chuck AU!!" [Pushing Daisies] at me. There was semi-platonic comfort-spooning in the second chapter, COME ON.

How I heard of it: Half Price Books

A Short Walk to the Bookshop - Aleksandra Drake. 2019. This looked like an even more solid Ned/Chuck AU, missing only the childhood connection/age similarity, with bonus fave keywords anxiety, widower, bookshop and dog.

How I heard of it: Googling

Girl Last Seen - Nina Laurin. 2017. Recently watched "Captive" and wanted a story of the aftermath from the captive's perspective.

How I heard of it: Goodreads (specifically, I looked up an older book by this title intending to check out related recs, but this came up first)

The Road to Enchantment - Kaya McLaren. 2017. Gorgeous cover/title + "single [pregnant] woman inherits late mother's ranch" = an alternate life I want to try on.

How I heard of it: Library

From Sand and Ash - Amy Harmon. 2016. Love between childhood best friends who can’t (well, aren’t supposed to) touch? Sounds like a Ned/Chuck AU to me!

How I heard of it: a book blog post

My Oxford Year - Julia Whelan. 2018. Always here for age-appropriate student/teacher romances -- I had this one saved for a while -- but read now specifically to cast David Tennant.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond - Jaime Jo Wright. 2018. There's a mystery from the past being solved in the present. Also, "inherited hoarder's trailer" made me v. curious about what was inside.

How I heard of it: a book blog post

My Husband the Stranger - Rebecca Done. 2017. It's Find Books That Remind Me Of David Tennant's Roles Month, and this was my crack at "Recovery."

How I heard of it: Googling

The House on Foster Hill - Jaime Jo Wright. 2017. Fixing up a spooky abandoned historic house + solving a mystery from the past in the present!

How I heard of it: a book blog post

Broadchurch - Erin Kelly. 2014. Fell in love with the show, had to immediately relive it in text form.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Vanishing - Wendy Webb. 2014. Spooky historic mansion from a reliable author for the spookening season.

How I heard of it: looking up the author’s back catalog

The Scholar - Dervla McTiernan. 2019. The Ruin - Dervla McTiernan. 2018. "Hmmm looks kind of like (Irish) Broadchurch but where the detective character has a girlfriend to fuss over and worry about. Nice." Read out of order because the second one had more girlfriend content, and enjoyed it enough to go back for book 1.

How I heard of it: Googling

The Day She Died - Catriona McPherson. 2014. The cover looked perfect for the Spook Season/gloomy weather. Sign me up for insta-families and murder mysteries w/ MCs in possible danger any day.

How I heard of it: library (literally because it was right next to McTiernan)

Still Missing - Chevy Stevens. 2010. Collecting base material for when I play this scenario (abduction/prolonged captivity and its aftermath) out w/ TV characters I like.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. 2019. It sounded EXACTLY like a (genderbent) Doctor/Master or Crowley/Aziraphale relationship.

How I heard of it: a book blog post

The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb. 2010. Wanted an audiobook and I like this author (esp. for spook season).

How I heard of it: author’s back catalog

The Child Garden - Catriona McPherson. 2015. I liked her previous book and this setting looked even spookier and more atmospheric.

How I heard of it: author’s back catalog

Quiet Neighbors - Catriona McPherson. 2016. One last dip into this author...because what part of "woman gets a job organizing the books in 'the oldest bookshop in a town full of bookshops' + an old cottage to stay in" does not sound like my dream life?

How I heard of it: author’s back catalog

Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker. 2006. After 2.5 months in a Ten/Rose spiral, the time was nigh to pluck one of their novels I didn’t get around to reading back in my original fandom heyday.

How I heard of it: can't remember

Misery - Stephen King. 1987. I just woke up one day and decided I was in the mood to try this infamous mother of all literary whumps.

How I heard of it: can’t remember

The Whisper Man - Alex North. 2019. Went looking for books that would remind me of the father/son dynamic in "The Escape Artist."

How I heard of it: Googling

Open Your Eyes - Paula Daly. 2018. Second crack at a "Recovery"-shaped novel (it failed instantly because I didn’t take the possibility of diversity into account, but suspense is still a good genre regardless).

How I heard of it: Googling

The Last - Hanna Jameson. 2019. "Dystopian psychological thriller" + the gorgeous hotel on the cover.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

------------------

YOUNG ADULT

Blood Wounds - Susan Beth Pfeffer. 2011. Established quality author + (what I thought was a) thriller premise.

How I heard of it: author’s back catalog

Beware That Girl - Teresa Totten. 2016. I wanted an audiobook, and contemporary YA options are limited at the library. The mystery/thriller aspect sounded good enough to spend 8+ hours with.

How I heard of it: library

Trafficked - Kim Purcell. 2012. I am mystified/intrigued by domestic/non-sexual slavery, and have not seen the topic covered in YA.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Wild Bird - Wendelin Van Draanen. 2017. I have long been fascinated by teen reform camps for girls in the wilderness.

How I heard of it: library

The Year of Luminous Love - Lurlene McDaniel. 2013. The Year of Chasing Dreams - Lurlene McDaniel. 2014.

The library didn't have Girl With the Broken Heart, but it did have a fat duology featuring similar elements of horses + tragic illness, and a trio of friends that called to mind Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

The Pull of Gravity - Gae Polisner. 2011. I was looking for quality male friendships, but the male/female friendship + road trip in this search result sounded like I could cast them as teen versions of Survivor contestants. I forget which ones.

How I heard of it: Googling

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) - Amy Spalding. 2018. Established quality author + bright cover, cool title, burger quest, MC's love of fashion and job in a clothing store, and summer in L.A. setting

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Tiger Eyes - Judy Blume. 1981. Found out Amy Jo Johnson was the mom in the movie version, decided to read the book as prep since once again, I knew the title, but not why I knew it.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay - Adib Khorram. 2018. I turned the internet upside down in search of books with quality male friendships, and was pointed here.

How I heard of it: Googling

Big Doc's Girl - Mary Medearis. 1941. Went looking for vintage stories of simple country girls who reminded me of Katharine McPhee's character in The House Bunny. (spoiler alert: this was not it even a little bit, why did I think it was)

How I heard of it: Googling

With Malice - Eileen Cook. 2016. Always here for random teen thrillers, including a fictionalized version of Amanda Knox.

How I heard of it: library

The Girls of No Return - Erin Saldin. 2012. Like I said, I'm big on girls reform camps in the wilderness.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Hope Was Here - Joan Bauer. 2000. Needed an audiobook. This one was short and by a proven quality author.

How I heard of it: library

Rules of the Road - Joan Bauer. 1998. Best Foot Forward - Joan Bauer. 2006. Bought the first super-cheap a while ago because of the cover/road trip aspect/fascinating first few pages; read NOW to keep the Bauer train rolling, followed immediately by its sequel.

How I heard of it: Goodwill/Goodreads

Now Is Everything - Amy Giles. 2017. Interesting format, sympathetic-sounding main character (edit: What Makes You Beautiful - Ha Ha Ha version.mp3), potential for a sweet and protective romance.

How I heard of it: library

Radical - E.M. Kokie. 2016. Survivalist/prepper teen?  Intriguing and underrepresented concept in YA.

How I heard of it: library

Hit the Road - Caroline B. Cooney. 2006. “It's spring, which means it's time to think about road trips.” Plus I just read a fun teen + old lady on the road book (Rules of the Road). It's thematic.

How I heard of it: library

I Am Still Alive - Kate Alice Marshall. 2018. I dig survival stories, especially in the wilderness, and this one was well recced.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Caged Graves - Dianne K. Salerni. 2013. Spook cover!! I MUST KNOW WHY THERE ARE CAGES OVER THESE GRAVES.

How I heard of it: library

Fancy Free - Betty Cavanna. 1961. Found cheap and will read this author always.

How I heard of it: antique store

Once And For All - Sarah Dessen. 2017. Stubborn determination to complete this author's canon and literally no other reasons.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Wired Man and Other Freaks of Nature - Sashi Kaufman. 2016. People in the Goodreads reviews were mad that the guys were so close yet not gay for each other. That's the very specific male friendship wheelhouse I've been looking for! Plus I know this author can write teen boys in a way I can tolerate.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Field Notes on Love - Jennifer E. Smith. 2019. Needed an audiobook and this was on display at the library; it looked cute and fluffy and I was ready for an antidote to the Dessen book.

How I heard of it: library

Midnight Sun - Trish Cook. 2017. Needed an audiobook and sick!lit seemed the most reliable of my options, given that previews for the movie had looked okay and it was real short.

How I heard of it: library

9 Days and 9 Nights - Katie Cotugno. 2018. Sequel to a book that drove me insane, but where I loved the writing style and was frustratingly fond of the characters so I Had 2 Know what happened next.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Your Destination Is On The Left - Lauren Spieller. 2018. Attractive cover + keywords like "nomadic RV lifestyle," Santa Fe, post-high-school YA, and internship

How I heard of it: library

Weird Girl and What's His Name - Meagan Brothers. 2015. X-Philes?? In MY modern-day YA fiction?? (with a side of inappropriate age-mismatched relationship?)  My interest is more likely than you'd think!

How I heard of it: library

All Out of Pretty - Ingrid Palmer. 2018. Attractive design + arresting first page piqued my curiosity

How I heard of it: library

Hitchhike - Isabelle Holland. 1977. Vintage book w/ a puppy on the cover, by an author I like.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Send No Blessings - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. 1990. Reread from high school after it came up on the What's The Name of That Book? discussion group; felt a strong pull of positive feelings but couldn't remember much.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Year of the Gopher - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. 1987 Wanted better understanding of the source material before reading an essay about this book and the above in Lost Masterworks of Young Adult Literature.

How I heard of it: another book

Up In Seth's Room - Norma Fox Mazer. 1979 There was an essay about this in Lost Masterworks too. I had read it a long time ago and remembered NOT liking it, but figured I might as well revisit it to review on Goodreads.

How I heard of it: library

Blizzard's Wake - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. 2002. Happened to be on the shelf when I checked to see what non-Alice books of hers the library had in stock, and figured as long I'm on a Naylor kick, this might as well happen. Mainly ‘cause I saw "deadly blizzard" on the back and was like "WOW this seems useful for my hurt/comfort scenario stockpile."

How I heard of it: library

A Whole New World - Liz Braswell. 2015. Seeing the new Aladdin trailer blew up my heart with FEELINGS for the original, so I went looking for a YA retelling. Can't believe I found an actual Disney-based retelling.

How I heard of it: Library catalog

After the Dancing Days - Margaret I. Rostkowski. 1986. The connection between Roy and the little girl in The Fall reminded me of this book, so I reread it specifically to visualize Andrew as Lee Pace.

How I heard of it: Library

There's Someone Inside Your House - Stephanie Perkins. 2017. I'll read most any teen thriller you throw at me. The more murders the better.

How I heard of it: Library

All the Forever Things - Jolene Perry. 2017. Loved the author's writing style on a previous book, but couldn't stomach the love triangle. Wanted to give her another chance.

How I heard of it: Library

Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz. 2012. Been on my TBR for a while because quality male friendship; read it now to see if I should keep or get rid of the dollar store copy I bought. (answer: get rid of. it's good but not amazing to me personally)

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Hollow Girl - Hillary Monahan. 2017. Violent revenge fantasy against rapists? Especially to save the life of a guy you like who was brutally beaten during your assault? Heck yeah.

How I heard of it: Library

The Opposite of Love - Sarah Lynn Scheerger. 2014. The hurt/comfort potential was off the charts and it vaguely reminded me of Ryan/Marissa (the O.C.).

How I heard of it: Library

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me - Meredith Zeitlin. 2015. It just looked light and cute, like summer.

How I heard of it: Library

Girl Online On Tour - Zoe Sugg. 2015. Girl Online Going Solo - Zoe Sugg. 2016. Two sequels to a book I enjoyed.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Plague Land - Alex Scarrow. 2017. Plague Land Reborn - Alex Scarrow. 2018. Always here for illness-based apocalypse/dystopia. Would have finished the trilogy but library doesn’t have book 3 yet.

How I heard of it: Library

Pretty Fierce - Kieran Scott. 2017. Spy daughter of spies running for her life along w/ doting boyfriend (named Oliver, a name that has never let me down in fiction)? The ship radar is sounding OFF.

How I heard of it: Library

The Leaving - Lynn Hall. 1980. Will read any LH book, but this one was small and easy to take on an overnight trip plus everything about the summary and first couple of pages drew me in.

How I heard of it: author’s back catalog

Speed of Life - J.M. Kelly. 2016. Beautiful cover, blue collar family, unusual premise (twin sisters co-parenting the baby one of them had, no dad in sight), and I love stories where teens are (essentially) head of household.

How I heard of it: Thrift Books

Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters - Meredith Zeitlin. 2012. Looked light and cute, because it's back-to-school time and lately I've been enjoying study blogs from people just starting high school.

How I heard of it: Library

The Land of 10,000 Madonnas - Kate Hattemer. 2016. Unsupervised teens a-wanderin' through Europe? Sign me up for that vicarious wanderlust.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

A Thousand Boy Kisses - Tillie Cole. 2016. A romance w/ astronomical hurt/comfort potential. (spoiler alert it’s too sickly saccharine even for me)

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Hooked - Catherine Greenman. 2011. Random reread of a book I had come to believe should have been 4 stars rather than 3, but couldn’t remember well enough to feel confident in changing the rating without checking first.

How I heard of it: Library

Appaloosa Summer - Tudor Robins. 2014. Horsey YA + after years of it being on my TBR, the author saw me post about this fact and offered to send me a free paperback copy for review.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

I Stop Somewhere - T.E. Carter. 2018. I too identified as a girl my classmates would never notice was missing (moreso in college, but still). Plus it's getting close to Halloween, so time for spooky/true-crime-esque reads.

How I heard of it: library

What Waits in the Woods - Kieran Scott. 2015. An ideal spook setting for the spook season!

How I heard of it: Library

Illuminae - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff. 2015. The formatting/art design just sounded cool and unique.

How I heard of it: a book blog post

Boot Camp - Todd Strasser. 2006. I went to the library to check out a different book of his, but this caught my eye because WHUMPITY WHUMP (with a side of pining for the teacher he had previously been in a relationship with).

The Last Trip of the Magi - Michael Lorinser. 2012. Picked up cheap at a book sale for the struggling-to-survive-a-winter-night-outside aspect.

A List of Cages - Robin Roe. 2017. Male friendship loaded with hurt/comfort.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

-------

MIDDLE GRADE

Sparrow Road - Sheila O'Connor. 2011. The setting -- an artist's retreat at an old mansion on sprawling estate grounds formerly used as an orphanage -- captivated me.

How I heard of it: a Little Free Library (outside of a mansion repurposed as an art council's center, actually)

Annie's Life in Lists - Kristin Mahoney. 2018. I LOVE LISTS.

How I heard of it: library

Hope is a Ferris Wheel - Robin Herrera. 2014. Still grinding my teeth over Dessen's Once and For All, I was desperate for a sweet middle grade story to refresh my palate. Gimme that bright cover. Ooh, and a trailer park kid?

How I heard of it: Library

The Education of Ivy Blake - Ellen Airgood. 2015. Prairie Evers - Ellen Airgood. 2012. Also intended as a Dessen antidote, I picked up the sequel first due to the incredibly charming excerpt on the back, and then fell so in love with the character and writing style I needed more of her world.

How I heard of it: Library

When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead. 2009. Rave reviews from friends; mystery aspect sounded intriguing.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Counting By 7s - Holly Goldberg Sloan. 2013. Picked up cheap at a fundraiser garage sale I wanted to support; seemed easily readable.

Summerlost - Ally Condie. 2016. Young!Ned/Chuck AU?? (spoiler alert: maybe if it wasn't so boring)

How I heard of it: Googling

Where The Heart Is - Jo Knowles. 2019. "Country girl taking care of the animals at a hobby farm across the road" = the childhood dream and also I wanted to ignore the summary and hope I could still get a Young!Ned/Chuck AU. How I heard of it: Library

The Wizards of Once - Cressida Cowell. 2017. Twice Magic - Cressida Cowell. 2018. First one: David Tennant reads the audiobook, and literally no other reasons.

Second one: Ah heck turns out I kind of loved how David Tennant read that audiobook and want more.

How I heard of it: Library catalog

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher. 2011. David Tennant reads the audiobook, and literally no other reasons.

How I heard of it: Library catalog

----------

NONFICTION

Seinology: The Sociology of Seinfeld - Tim Delaney. 2006. It's sociology, it's Seinfeld, what's not to love?

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Survivor: The Ultimate Game - Mark Burnett. 2000. At the beginning of the year I was obsessed w/ this show like never before, so a detailed recap of one of its seasons seemed like the ticket to complement that.

How I heard of it: Googling

Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival - Yossi Ghinsberg. 1985. Loved the movie, wanted to relive it in text form.

How I heard of it: special features on the DVD

Lost Masterworks of Young Adult Literature - ed. Connie Zitlow. 2002. There was an essay about Send No Blessings in here. If that's the kind of book this book is about, I wanna hear all about it.

How I heard of it: Library catalog

Animals in Young Adult Fiction - Walter Hogan. 2009. From the same publishing line as the above, which I loved, I figured this was even MORE my specialized reading niche.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Phantoms of the Hudson Valley - Monica Randall. 1996. When I have I ever NOT wanted to read about grand mansions of yesteryear -- especially if some are abandoned ruins?

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Seven Cats and the Art of Living - Jo Coudert. 1996. Picked up cheap at a library sale because cats (and the cute author-illustrated cover painting).

Psychic Pets and Spirit Animals: True Stories From The Files of Fate Magazine. 1996. Random reread of a childhood favorite.

How I heard of it: B. Dalton's (THAT’S how long I’ve had this book, y’all).

Extreme Couponing - Joni Meyer-Crothers with Beth Adelman. 2013. Who doesn't love saving money? But I am not very coupon-savvy and wanted to learn.

How I heard of it: Library

Cabin Lessons: A Tale of 2x4s, Blisters and Love - Spike Carlsen. 2015. Having the money/skill to build my own cabin on MN's north shore is a fun daydream.

How I heard of it: Library

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book  - Wendy Welch. 2012. Opening a used bookstore is my impractical dream too.

How I heard of it: Library

Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home - Nora Krug.  2018. Illustrated memoirs are always awesome.

How I heard of it: Library

The Astor Orphan: A Memoir - Alexandra Aldrich. 2013.

Rokeby was one of the estates that fascinated me in Phantoms of the Hudson Valley, and the content of this one took place around the same era that book was written.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

I'll Be There For You: The One About Friends - Kelsey Miller. 2018. Am I going to turn down "a retrospective" about one of my favorite shows?? I am not.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB & UPN. 2007. Recommended after the above because I love hearing how network TV stations are built in terms of programming decisions.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of 80s and 90s Teen Fiction - Gabrielle Moss. 2018. Take how I reacted to Lost Masterworks of Young Adult Literature, and multiply it by "fully illustrated with brightly colored pages." These are the kind of books I’m familiar with and always down to talk/hear about, but hardly anyone else is.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

[ezrajteboul]

Sonic Bodies (Henriques, 2011)

I wrote this summary of Julian Henriques’ 2011 Sonic Bodies for a reading group I’m in. I thought it might be helpful for other people dealing with this dense but instructive project.

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"Sonic Bodies" is Julian Henriques' (currently prof. at Goldsmiths in London) in depth study of Jamaican soundsystem culture. Through extensive observation from both the margins and within this loose set of cultural practices, Henriques develops a theory of knowledge through sound and the bodies that produce and consume it, grounded in carribean culture but with clear relevance to anyone thinking through sound.

Henriques bases his discussion around observations made in Kingston, although these soundsystems are almost by definition touring assemblages of humans and machines. The electrical counterpart for and in some ways powering Reggae's cultural and sonic heritage, soundsystems consist - as outlined over 300 dense pages by Henriques which alternate interviews, descriptions and interpretation - of technicians, managers, entrepreneurs, DJs ("selectors"), MCs, their audiences and the equipment and history that links them across time and space - often, these roles overlap, with even the distinction between machine and human shifting.

The general objective of the book is hinted to in the introduction by Henriques, who writes ominously:  

Starting the journey of Sonic Bodies by thinking through sound, as distinct from thinking about sound as an idea or an object, the next step is to consider talking through sound. This involves an appreciation of the idiomatic vocabulary and nomenclature of those that work with sound in Jamaican popular culture, namely the sound system crew. This leads to a methodology, or a doing through sound, that informs the investigation. Not surprisingly listening to sound is central to this methodology, followed by describing exactly what was heard of the processes and practices of sounding. This leads to a theorising through sound itself, that is, completing the account of the practice and performance techniques of sonic bodies with a theory of a sonic logos. (xxxii)

The cultural premise here is that of Reggae / Jamaica / Soundsystem's culture of bass. The attachment to low-end both requires and shapes the powerful technological apparatus of the soundsystem. Rather than give you an exhaustive catalog of the terms and corresponding examples developped by Henriques over the course of this long book, I want to focus on a couple that I think are interesting to me and central to the argument. Quoting Dennis Howard's review in Dancecult:

[Henrique suggests that] all sonic bodies are configured in these vibrations of bass culture. He proposes that these vibrations can be categorised into three distinctive wavebands. Firstly, they are material, a by-product of the sound system itself and the equipment and its phonography; secondly, there is the corporeal waveband encompassing the crew’s performance and the crowd response; and the final waveband relates to the sociocultural—the interaction, behaviour, traditions, style and cultural practices within the dancehall environ.  (122)

These are summarized in this triangular diagram - one of many such diagrams in the book:

This "waveband" and its multiple forms really interested me because although they are elaborated out of the specificities of dancehall culture (a synonym for the Reggae/soundsystem scene), they map out to my experience of sound and my thinking about / of / through sound productively.  As Henriques writes:

a complex apparatus such as a sound system cannot be reduced to the set of equipment alone, as the material waveband of sounding, or even the crew’s performance as the corporeal vibrations of sounding, or even a phenomenon of the Dancehall scene as its sociocultural vibrations. In short, sounding is expressed in all three frequency bands at the same time, as a triangulation (Figure 1.11).  [27]

What follows is an extremely detailed assessment of those three aspects of a sonic culture. There are fascinating details: I found myself really excited to read about how WW2 and british telecommunications training for the colonial military members brought back a number of role models for younger, technically inclined Jamaicans which learned how to build amplifiers from figures like Headley Jones (also independent inventor of the electric guitar and guitar amplifiers). Henriques traces a genealogy of sonic knowledge, tacit and explicit, through six generations of technician / owners / tuners of dancehall systems since Jones and other foundational figures. This genealogy bears the marks of the colonial / capitalist / non-western context in which it developed and continues to develop: almost everything is DIY, adapted, tuned and modified. Because these systems were developed for the outdoors, they tend to build up power (by accumulating amplifier units) much faster than club PA systems in western sound culture (which tends to be an indoor activity). Prior to the 70's, tuning a sound system require soldering different components in the filters and amplifiers, on the spot, because mechanisms for tuning hadn't been standardized in the assemblage of these soundsystems. Shifting to the practice of the "session" - the party, the event - Henriques details the unique position of the "selector," the dancehall DJ, linking Jamaican practices to those of hip-hop with the use of turntables (as discussed by Mark Katz, whose work is something of an american counterpart to Henriques Carribean perspective). It's impossible to do justice to the diverse yet unequal voices Henriques collects, all fragmented yet all caring for a similar project and assembled artificially in the book: the book is worth reading if only for those.

The travelling nature of these technical systems brought to mind the "large technical systems" of Thomas Hughes and other historians of technology who are enamored with the power grid, the postal service, etc. Henriques' soundsystem occupies a space between the national and international infrastructure of power or transportation, but certainly larger than any one person would ever want to engage with by themselves. Both in terms of artifacts and in terms of sound produced, the Jamaican soundsystem is a powerful, heavy, collective effort leveraged as a form of community building and maintenance.

Where I found myself more lost (drowned in the wavebands) is the encyclopedic catalog of philosophical, social, and cultural references leveraged by Henriques to turn a situated case-study (an extensive, fascinating one) into a theory of sound as experience. Under the auspices of his Sonic Logos Henriques proposes a way of thinking that is even more all-encompassing than Cox's "Sonic flux," since:

the Sonic Logos claims that thinking through sound encourages the kind of sensibility that might prove useful for understanding the ways of knowing to be found in other situations and settings – with nothing to do with a Dancehall session or indeed with sound as such (...)  With a sonic logos, mind and body, viewer and viewed, subject and object, internal and external worlds mingle and merge to render rationality in terms of ratio rather than just representation.  (xxxv-vi)

As I read it Henriques proposes a way of knowing grounded in the insight from his time within and around Kingston's dancehall / soundsystem practitioners, but extending to the history and philosophy of knowledge as a whole.

(267)

In her review of the book (Body Cultures 21(1), 2015) Beatrice Ferrara resumes the last section of the book:

The concluding section, ‘The Sonic Logos’, uses the model of wave mechanics to discuss theoretical questions of sympathy and attunement, in order to contend that knowledge is something that is common and particular, situated and embodied, recursive and innovative. Analogue variation and periodic motion – the kind of movements peculiar to the process of resonation – are proposed as the dynamic pattern of this sonic logos: according to the author, these ways of knowing unfold on the mind–body continuum as they emerge from the triangulation of proprioceptive movement (self-impression), kinetic movement (expression) and haptic movement (impression). (122)

It's fair, but there's a lot going on here. Henriques outlines three things:

1)  The ratios of the sonic logos are recognised through pattern and rhythm, rather than schema and discourse. (256) 2)  the sonic logos can also importantly be characterised as analogy (263) 3)  The third and final aspect of the reason of the sonic logos is expressed in the relationship of triangulation that has been so much in evidence throughout Sonic Bodies. (265)

This idea of triangulation is, I think, clearer to me than Ferrara's summary of the conclusion. Henriques writes:

Auditory propagation can be used to model a set of triadic relationships, as with melody, harmony and rhythm, for example, in the way its visual counterpart favours binaries, as with viewer and viewed, for instance. The importance of the relationship of triangulation has emerged throughout the investigation, as with the frequency, amplitude and timbre of sound, or indeed the three wavebands of sounding.   (265)

I tried writing a clever thing to say about this a few times, without any real success - I guess this is where discussion helps? All I can do is relate Henriques preference for triangles over dualisms to my own interest in the co-construction not simply of music and humans; music and technology; and technology and humans, but of all three at the same time. It seems essential to study all at the same time, because all mediate various agencies on each other and themselves. Henriques' study of dancehall culture is certainly a success in doing that, and a template for future work - perhaps that's all one can ask for?