#book of the month club book club

[leverage-ot3]

I’ve talked about this before but imagine what it’s like for someone in a country/place where eliot is Top Most Wanted and then your tech guy finds a breakout star baseball player on their visual scanner that looks EXACTLY like spencer. but…there’s no way that’s him, right???

and then the next year it happens again but this time it’s some one hit wonder country singer kenneth crane that has like 78 tween-run fangirl blogs dedicated to him. you see a grainy video of him being chased by a horde of screaming teenage girls and ??? no way Eliot Last Thing You’ll Ever See Spencer is a country singer star just. signing pictures of his face right…?

a few months later your intern shows you footage of an eliot lookalike who is in san lorenzo talking about how there is dog fighting in the presidential palace and you just. sigh. because of course. a scant few days later the political geography of the country changes drastically and damien moreau is imprisoned. …interesting

and then a year of silence goes by. he still shows up as blips on the radar but he must have a good hacker working for him because his tracks on the internet are expertly erased.

every time you ask through interagency channels some random interpol guy talks in (condescending?) riddles at you and it also somehow feels like he’s threatening you

and then your friend who recently got into foreign hockey teams sends you a dropyourgloves video of someone called jacques the bear. you immediately get a headache (and watch some more videos because even you can admit this guy is a good hockey player)

and you know he’s a Bad Guy but it’s been admittedly a bit entertaining seeing what claim to fame he will come upon next. and his most recent actions over the few years make you wonder.

a few months later your phone pings because multiple heads of state evacuated from DC. the reason? eliot spencer was in town. you hear two days later a bioterrorist was taken down by… the report was redacted. your hacker tells you spencer and two teammates were behind the successful operation. which, huh.

not even a full year later it is released that spencer is dead and… you don’t know how to feel.

[pufftheninja]

Lilia Vanrouge 💚🖤🩷

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[notebooks-and-laptops]

If u ever feel bad about yourself know that today at work I got so invested in a debate we were having surrounding whether social media was a good or a bad thing, that I loudly exclaimed "there's no library writing group that wants to read about my two favourite fictional guys kissing" and then had to exist while everyone stared at me like I'd grown two heads

[melodysbookhaven]

queerlybelovedbooks on Instagram

[amid-fandoms]

phil is a coffee girlie and a book lover and that’s me in a nutshell so it’s upsetting that we aren’t best friends who go on reading dates at cafes together :(

[infamous-if]

Monthly Update

Happy October! I'm not good with weekly or bi-weekly updates so a monthly one seems better. This month is going to hopefully be an eventful one for the story.

I have a list of the things I want to do for Patreon including a spooky interactive story. I love halloween and horror and everything scary so I feel like I'm at 100% power this month lmao

I will continue doing POVs, flashbacks, and all that jazz for Patreon as I always do. For October, I'm hoping to get part 2 out. I hope I can, but I also will try not to punish myself if I take longer than I expect.

I want to finish that so I can begin reworking the first two chapters to prepare for chapter 3 and beyond. I haven't touched the prologue or the first chapter and will not do so until after part 2. Honestly, there's already some things in the prologue + chapter 1 I'd do different but I have no intention of changing it very drastically so we'll see.

I've been jotting down all the suggestions I like for the "rewrite" (I use that term loosely). My inbox is always open for suggestions, and there's already a few from people that I will be implementing.

Once Chapter 3 is halfway done, I will begin looking for beta testers. I...don't know how that process works lmao but I'll figure It out. The game has gotten so big already that I shudder at what the word count may be at like, chapter 9 or something lmao.

That's all! Nothing new on my end, tbh. Hope you have a happy October :)

[vanillaflowerstuff]

tj klune you've done it again

[coffin-flop]

(alt text: in the background is the Disability Pride Flag, in front of that is the book covers of: Out on a Limb; The Luis Ortega Survival Club, True Biz, Blackwater, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and The Heart Principal)

It's Disability Pride Month! Here are just a few books I really liked that would be fitting to read this month :)

Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young - a contemporary romance where a one night stand leads to a pregnancy they decide to navigate together (and both love interests have limb differences)

The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes - a ya novel about a largely non-speaking autistic teen who's raped by a boy she thought was her friend, who grows a community of people who help one another along a path of revenge and healing

True Biz by Sara Nović - a book about several students and an administrator at River Valley School for the Deaf navigating changes in their lives and their sense of community, and fighting for their autonomy.

Blackwater by Jeannette Arroyo and Ren Graham a YA graphic novel about a badboy teen jock, a quiet boy with an autoimmune disorder, and the spooky things that live in their town. Werewolves and cute romance included.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White - a YA historical fiction horror which takes place in an alternate 1883 London where violet-eyed mediums (men) commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society. When a trans autistic boy is diagnosed with Veil sickness, a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness, he's shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School, where the ghosts of missing students beg for his help. even tho it's ya, it is horror and the themes are very heavy- check out trigger warnings.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang is about Anna, who is facing career burnout in a flakey relationship, embracing an open relationship at her longtime boyfriend's suggestion. Instead of the string of one night stands she planned on, she finds someone who accepts her and helps her understand herself. Their relationship is derailed when a family emergency puts even more weight on Anna's shoulders until she finally has to care for herself. This is a contemporary romance, but the subject matter is pretty heavy and the protagonist experiences a prolonged period of autistic burnout

[polyamorouspunk]

Punk’s Book Reccomendations:

Chain-Gang All-Stars

What It Has:

Social commentary on the American Prision system

Black butch lesbian couple

Polyamory

Nonbinary character

Murder/gore TW

Mentions of rape, domestic violence, and CSA

Main character death (a lot of it)

Racism TW

Unhappy Ending

Relatable to:

The Running Man

The Hunger Games

Squid Games

[your-stranger-halfblood-things]

LGBTQ+ book recommendations:

. Felix Ever After - Kacen Callender

. The Art of Being Normal - Lisa Williamson

. Into the Light - Mark Oshiro

. Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo

. Ziggy, Stardust & Me - James Brandon

. Carry On - Rainbow Rowell

. Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

. Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

. George - Alex Gino

. Rick - Alex Gino

. Camp QUILTBAG - Nicole Melleby and A.J. Sass

. The Taking of Jake Livingston - Ryan Douglass

. The Wicker King - Ancrum

[shalom-iamcominghome]

The jewish love language really is giving each other book recommendations you think they'd like........

[cassandrva]

let's talk about the fish/water/christ symbolism in the game of kings. with spoilers

fish (as ιχθυς) is an acronym for christ, and it's the first food jesus eats after being resurrected, right? it symbolizes rebirth, life, and christ himself. i personally think fish are slippery and cold-blooded too, but that's neither here nor there.

now look at how the game of kings starts: "lymond is back". we immediately know this book is about returning, it's about rebirth. in fact, the first thing we see is the man himself submerged in a body of water and coming out on the other side, after a baptism of sorts, as the character he will play for most of the book: lymond the outlaw, lymond the traitor.

the first words out of his mouth are "i am a narwhal": he identifies himself as a fish right away, and not just any fish but the unicorn fish; the unicorn of course being scotland's national animal. in perspective, he tells us everything we need to know about him: his status as a christ figure, his destiny to be reborn, his complicated relationship with his country.

the next time he's in a body of water, it's the second chapter and he's dying from a head injury in a bog. he's washed clean, this time, too: from his own identity. he's free to inhabit another character from the lymond constellation. it's also pretty funny that he's found by sym while he's going fishing ("you’ve hooked a twenty-pounder this time, my lad"), and he's nursed back to health by someone named Christian. not subtle.

lymond seems to be pretty into this whole fish and rebirth thing, does he not? he wouldn't lie to us. he wouldn't pretend to embrace life while actively seeking death, right? anyway, no relation at all, when the baby queen mary tries feeding him a fish he pretends to eat it and secretly throws it away. the fish is described as struggling and barely alive, which again i am sure is a coincidence.

then some stuff happens, and the next time lymond is offered fish he doesn't have it in him to keep pretending. he doesn't want the damn fish. newsflash, asshole (richard): he really, really wants to die. this is my favorite scene for many reasons, and one of them is the perfect juxtaposition of its literal and symbolic meanings: richard says he wants to see lymond hanged, but what he does is to drag him away from the tomb-like dovecote and towards running water, makes him eat the damn fish again and again until the miracle is complete. he's holding on to his brother with both hands and teeth before he even realizes he's doing it.

when it comes to an end the fish is off the hook, christ is off the cross and for once he's not sacrificed for the sins of others, and we close on him in his mother's arms in a beautiful literary pietà.

there's so much stuff i purposefully didn't mention and probably didn't notice, this is just a tiny example of the gorgeous figurative and thematic cohesion in this novel. i love it. thank you dorothy dunnett.

[arson-09]

Whenever i see someone complaining about ships/non canon ships/crackships/whatever im like. you can just admit that youre BORING

[melodysbookhaven]

theindecisivereaders on Instagram

[princessrainevillanueva]

Happy Pride Month!

I'm so excited to post my favorite couple Dog Man and Petey and I LOVE THEM ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💖🌈

Also on my Instagram, this one is the fixed version because the art I posted there is where I forgot to put Dog Man's stitches. I won't remove it but enjoy!

[deadboystims]

ᯓ★ ┊ poly dokis ( ddlc ) stimboard with books, boba tea, cupcakes and pens for 💗🎤 anon! yippee!!!

1 , 2 , 3 ┊ 4 , 5 , 6 ┊ 7 , 8 , 9