#bookish celebration

[starrynightsxo]

happy knife wife appreciation day to everyone who celebrates 🎉🎉

[the-forest-library]

random word bpc: rabbit

[godzilla-reads]

🌲 The Forests: A Celebration of Nature, in Word and Image by Michelle Lovric

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Our fascination with the forest is reflected in a long tradition of art, poetry, and literature. Here is a part of that tradition, a unique collection of words and images that evoke the richness, the tranquility, and the primeval wonders of the Earth’s deep forests.

My mom isn’t feeling well enough to read right now, so I picked up this book from our shelf and read it aloud to her. It is filled with beautiful pictures, art, and quotes from poetry and an array of authors. I would’ve rated it higher, though, if the format had been easier to read on some of the pages.

“Green, I love you green. Green wind. Green branches.” —Federico García Lorca

[myloveharry]

It's my 1 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

Thank you for the appreciation, love and support. Looking forward to providing better content for all of you.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

May 2024 Reading Stats

The Calender

🍉🍉Before I start this calendar I want to start a disclaimer and remind people about what's happening in 🍉🍉 Country and that Disney and Marvel should be held accountable. Therefore I will not be recommending The Disney Novel or Marvel Comic. Disney and Marvel need to divest from Is**el for me to fully recommended and show them physically on camera. Please buy Marvel and Disney books second hand if you must have them.🍉🍉

What a month it has been, with how much I've read this month I'm definitely dubbing it the gay month. June should really be the Gay Month but it sadly won't be so I'm glad I made May that month. Starting with the beginning of the month. My reading pattern is that my last read of the month will very clearly dip into the next one but it doesn't bother me. Pageboy was very easy to finish and whilst I got everyone's criticisms I thought they were exaggerated. It's a really good Trans Memoir but not the best. This Arab Is Queer is something I had for my Readalong for Palestine I'm doing and although no one took part I go alot out of this collection and it was a 5 star all the way. Only took 2 days to finish in May and I'm happy about that.

After finishing the 8th Doctor Adventures first season, I decided to dip into the main range and listen to the first too and they were pretty great in my book. The Sirens Of Time was easy to listen to whilst I did an oc sketch and it felt very much like the Classic Who version of Day Of The Doctor. 5,6 and 7 had amazing chemistry together so even though it's the very first audio your bound to gain some laughs. Phantasmagoria is probably one of the best Mark Gatiss content I have consumed and it was very spooky. It was supernatural with that ever loving Doctor Who sci-fi charm that you know and love. Will definitely pop in to more of the main range in the future. I'm only listening to 8s for now.

Cabin At The End Of The World, loved the book but towards the end I didn't enjoy it as much. Let's just say I hate ambiguity, I also hated the audiobook narrator so I had to read along in a quicker speed which was quite the challenge. So as a result it was quicker than my usual 300 + page reads. Welcome To St Hell was another one of my most anticipated reads and it highly delivered. It took a measly Ten Days which was an achievement itself as without chapters it was hard to split up my read as I'm certainly not the finish in one day type of reader. Still though for my first graphic novel it was very very good.

My side reads for this month exactly were very different. One was terrible for its last very transphobic and ableist story and the other was a very educational jam-packed nonfiction about the situation in Palestine and how simple it is thanks to brainwashing. In the end as good as the other two stories were Happs gave me massive brain rot. Fnaf fans are way too forgiving to Scott. On Palestine was great forever to the point I want to give it to my friend to help him understand the situation. I was able to get through it quickly and absorb alot. It was a good recommendation.

Finally my reads tipping into June. Yep no not until Marvel and Disney divest. I feel okay talking about Star Wars cos alot of authors are anti-israel and anti-zionist. If Daniel José Older gets fired I'm going to be done with them too. J.Elle is a really good writer though and I'm definitely gonna look at more of her books.

June's Stats

Wow just wow. May's stats were like a lightning bolt. I did a lot of reading this month and I expect stats like this will be ever so common in the glorious summer stats. So let's break these chunky stats down.

I read 8 books including 6 physical books/graphic novels and 2 Big Finish audios. That's just chock a block impressive and I'm very proud of myself as that's my highest number yet. As pages that too was my highest yet with 1,477 pages which is 489 pages up from last May. Interesting I also only read 3 books in May last year. So this is a very positive sign at how my reading journey is evolving. And of course my highest hours stats with 3.6 hours logged. I dipped into longer big finish audios this month so it makes a lot of sense.

Up next Genres. When I said this was a very gay month I mean it. I read many genres this month; LGTBQIA+, Science Fiction, Memoir, Horror, Young Adult, Thriller, Politics, History, Graphic Novel and Essays but coming on top with a whopping 4 reads was LGTBQIA+. It makes sense I have a lot of lgtbq+ representation on my tbr and this just happens to be a lucky month where I've gotten through quite a few. It also for the first time topped Science Fiction which is not an easy feet to do trust me. In joint second place with only 2 reads was Science Fiction, Horror and Memoir. I'm so glad that I was finally able to get to have a reading month with more diversity in genre. Let's see what June brings.

Mainly reads is still the same for now. I love my adventurous, dark and mysterious books as well as my medium paced books that are under 300 pages.

Again for moods for the first time in forever Reflective comes at top. The moods this month Reflective, Dark, Informative, Mysterious, Funny, Emotional, Adventurous, Tense And Inspiring. As a result of reading a lot of nonfiction this month I was finally able to tip away from my usual adventurous mood. All the nonfiction reads I had were very indeed thought provoking and reflective. In joint second place was emotional and dark which ie expected as I love books that hit me hard in the heart.

Star ratings were all over the place this month it was a very mixed bag month some amazing, some average, some terrible. My overall star rating for the month was 4.22 a minor improvement from May last year where the average rating was 4.17. There's always next May to get the average score up as long as I pick good books. We had two five star reads in This Arab Is Queer and Welcome To St Hell which was well deserved in my opinion. For the first time ever two 4.75 star novels in Phantasmagoria and On Palestine they were close to being 5 star but not quite there for me. Again two four stars in Pageboy and The Sirens Of Time. One 3.75 star thanks to the icky ending and rushed past and of course one 2.5 star novel that deserves the rating. It'll be interesting to see how June's stats compare against this.

May's Reads/Listens

A jam packed reading month indeed. This Arab Is Queer was an incredible Anthology that heavily educated me and sheeded any internalised bigotry over queer arab folk. It was also a very thought provoking and powerful collection of essays it really helped reshaped alot of the views I've had. The Sirens Of Time was a delightful timey whimey multi-doctor story that basically is the classic who version of Day Of The Doctor. Peter Davison, Colin Baker And Sylvester had amazing chemistry, I definitely want to look into more of the main range now.

Pageboy was definitely overhated it did not deserve all the hate and disappointment in my opinion. Its really not that bad at all. I think people are just fustrated about the non linear and him talking about his experiences prior to his transition but I felt like it was a hundred percent nesscary. Trans experiences aren't linear and Elliot did his absolute best trying to show that in his memoir. Phantasmagoria was a really good Big Finish listen and I heavily enjoyed it. Its one of my favourite project of Mark Gatiss's that I have ever seen, he's an absolutely fantastic writer, I don't care what people say I love his stories. This was a really cool supernatural story with Five and Turlough, the twists were generally shocking and it was a fun ride. Highly recommend giving Phantasmagoria a listen if you haven't done.

The Cabin At The End Of The World was better than the movie until a heavy tragic ending that differed from the movie and absorbed the bury your gays trope like a bubble. I love how Wen's povs were actually written in the style of a six year old girl. It was disturbing yess but made this story way too bury your gays trope than it already is. Might be controversial but that's my whole opinion. I also felt like the message contradicted itself is it about the desperation of religions cults or it a positive normalising gay families and about how gay love it powerful enough to save the work. On Palestine is the best book tok recommendation that I have ever been given. I wanted to fully understand the g-side happening in Palestine and all three authors summed it up perfectly. It was also interesting to learn about Propaganda and how its seeded into Israeli youth from a young age. It also heavily talks about the US and other countries and why they ally with Israel, its not what you may think. Props to Noam, Ilam and Frank for their hard work and important discussions.

Finally Happs and Welcome To St Hell. One of these two is 💩 and the other is 10/10. Yeah it's not Happs. What were Scott and team thinking, I know it might not have been intentional but Transphobia is Transphobia regardless wether or not intentional. It made me feel violated and sick and spoil my enjoyment of the other two stories in the collection. It was horror but not in a good way. Welcome To St Hell was my first graphic novel and it slapped. This was another one of my impulse purchases and I'm so glad I did indeed buy it. Terfs tried to review bomb it but I don't give a flying f** about their opinion. The Art was beautiful and I loved that Lewis didn't primarily feed into the Trans trauma trope and tell a sad story. Also The panels where he narrated and talked to his past self had me in tears of laughter cos as a semi masc Nonbinary person I found it so relatable. It's also really educational. A five star that I highly recommend.

Conclusion

A very very good reading month and it might not be a big deal to everyone else but I'm really proud of myself for what I've achieved, I literally think since I first got back into reading its an absolute record for me. Maybe it's a sign I should go out more but honestly I'm not fussed and couldn't care any less.

Big Finish for the future we're tipping into The Charley Arc as I want to listen to more 8 and one 12 and 11 multi Doctor short trip. Crazy thing is though with my audhd brain I already have next years listens planned. Expect a lot and I mean a lot of Big Finish reviews that might just be paced from Storygraph but who cares.

My next five reads as of this blog are Race To Crashpoint Tower, Jamie, A Test Of Courage, War Of The Worlds and Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain. Very excited to see how the rest of the year goes and I'm absolutely loving the lovely templates I've got from @LEEBEE_READS. So much more to come and I really love looking back and reflecting on my reader tastes.

Have a happy Pride Month everyone 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

-Melody-

They/Them

[humnooshop]

"The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is...42!" ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Redbubble

[starrynightsxo]

xander: *trying out social media* well Gray... another day, another slay.

grayson: *serious* what type of riddle is that supposed to be Xan? You're losing the Hawthorne touch.

xander:

max: is he funking with us right now??

avery: gray-

jameson (never-miss-an-opportunity-to-screw-with-his-brother) winchester hawthorne: MY, MY, WELL OF COURSE dear brother mine, you see poor xander here...

[khyatigautam]

The Celebrity CEO | Tomson Robert | Book Review

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nu Voice Press (29 February 2024); Nu Voice Press Language ‏ : ‎ English Paperback ‏ : ‎ 200 pages “The Celebrity CEO” by Tomson Robert is a gripping novel that delves into the complexities of ambition, power, and personal transformation. Set against the vibrant backdrops of Dubai and India, the story follows Ariyan, a protagonist inspired by Steve Jobs, as he navigates the highs…

[kalosis91]

Hollywood Ball

This is the 2nd book in the Manchester Athletic series by Annie Dyer and follows Ryan and his love interest.

One a football player (soccer player) and the other is an up and coming movie and tv star who cross paths when they get caught up in a tropical storm for two days. They spend those days together and then part ways never exchanging names, just bodily fluids lol.

They then meet by chance and resume getting to know each other and manage to keep the relationship a secret for nearly 6 months.

They also manage a long distance relationship that is complicated by past girlfriends and rumours of dating co-stars.

Really enjoyable book

[discoveringmyself88]

Perfect way to start off my birthday…

Free coffee ☕️ and a good book 📖

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

April 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

All hail April!!!! This has been a fabulous reading month. I'm now back on track and have almost completed some of my reading goals. I was really worried my health was gonna hold me back but it hasn't done. I've been ever the bookworm as the usual. Another month where I've read a lot of science fiction month but you can see towards the end of the month that we're dipping into other genres adding more diversity but I have a strong feeling that May is gonna be a very gay reading month for me. Spoilers for May but I have finished Pageboy and This Arab Is Queer and both were fantastic reads.

Finally got to more of my Readalongs for Palestine with This Arab Is Queer and Minor Detail and Minor Detail went really well but it wasn't an easy read at all. A nesscary but not an easy one, please be prepared if you want to learn more about Palestine. Look after yourself after picking it up and take your time, kind of wish I had done that but Adania Shibli deserves the whole world. It's a very clever story and it went ways I did not expect. Read it at least once. This Arab Is Queer is definitely one I'll be keeping as it helped me understand pink washing and scrub a lot of harmful stereotypes out of my head. Hearing queer Arab voices gave me a fresh perspective and a wake up call.

Only two Star Wars books this month which is definitely an improvement. Life Debt wasn't perfect but loads better than Aftermath and a huge improvement so I'm now excited for when I get to Empire Ends. Norra and Sloane are great and the og characters didn't overshadow the new ones. Highlight though was Brotherhood, like Claudia Gray gets Leia, Mike Chen understands Obi-Wan and Anakin, he needs to write more or at least a Mill solo novel. A wonderful Star Wars writer that needs more novels.

Funny how most of the covers I've read have been white. Guess I'm a cover colour reader too. Lallys Game stands out so much that it isn't even funny. My friend got me Lallys Game to keep and needless to say I'm only gonna re read it once then possibly discard it wasn't very good. Honestly it's a shame cos the Epilogue was the literal best part of the book. Based on the Epilogue I'm gonna give the others a shot though.

Highlight though was absolutely finishing S1 of the 8th Doctor Adventures. That season finale was mind spinning and super enjoyable. Review to come but that was definitely my second favourite story of the season and a really enjoyable listen. Part 1 mirrored Black Mirror which is like one of my favourite shows and Part 2 was an action packed battle against the Cybermen. The performances were great too and I'm now eager to explore every Big Finish I can.

2024 really is turning out to be more jam-packed. I'm hoping May will be more diverse in terms of genre but April was definitely a good start.

April Stats

These templates rule and I'm glad I'm sticking with them. Sorry January but my Stats are so much more tidy now. I did very well in April and I'm suprised there's no lighthearted mood in my Stats. May's Stats will also be very interesting. I'm blown away at the diversity and how different it is from January, February and March . It stands out from the other months in all the best way. That's being said let's review...

Again I'm on a 6 for 6 streak and have read 6 books this month but if you want to be more accurate. I've read four books and once again listened to two audios. Surprisingly I read less pages than I did last April as I read 1,137 pages which was 109 pages less than April 2023. I'm not disappointed though as I think I did very well considering how busy I've been with life. Next I listened 2.03 hours which is good bit definitely gonna shoot up as I listen to some of Big Finish's older main range audios. Done very well and I'm proud of myself.

Genres are a little bit more diverse this month I'm heavily impressed. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery, Literary, Horror, Historical And Contemporary. Of course though Science Fiction comes out on top with four reads/listens. Nice try fantasy. Yeah I'm not suprised, Big Finish is dominating my life to the point I'm really hyperfixated and heavily invested I'll never stop listening to it now the 8th Doctor Adventures have me hooked and eager to explore what else they have to offer. We'll see if another genre trumps it next month, we shall see.

Mainly reads is not budging or changing anytime soon. I do wanna read longer books in the future though as I'm getting really good with my reading speed and need a challenge.

Moods this month were a little more diverse. We had Adventurous (of course), Dark, Sad, Emotional, Mysterious, Tense And Funny. I'll honestly be suprised when Adventurous and Mysterious don't rule a month. I don't really like reading sad books and it's actually one of the lowest moods on my tbr but it was worth breaking that rule for Minor Detail. This month's mood has ironically fit with my mainly reads. I'm not particularly a mood reader but I'm glad I have more of a range this month.

Last April ended with an average star rating of 4.75 but in April 2024 I had an average of 4.46, not surprising though considering Lallys Game and the fact I'm reading/listening to more stuff. Two reads ended up being 4.5 Stars, whilst 2 listens ended up being 5 Stars. (Human Resources Part 1 + 2 absolutely earned that) One read ended up being 4.25 Stars (yes I'm abusing this rating more) and another ended up being 3.5 Stars. (You obviously know which) Let's see what May brings but so far February seems to be the best in terms of ratings.

What a good month of reading stats though, good luck May.

Read/Listens

As I mentioned 6 reads/listens and ones that were all very enjoyable.

Like I mentioned I did good with the Star Wars reads I had this month. Finishing Life Debt got me super excited due to how much more engaging it is but unfortunately Empires End is further down my tbr. Still never the less I'm still really excited now that Chuck Wending improved upon feedback and tried writing the Trilogy better. Man its darker and even more disturbing im suprised it wasn't listed as such. Like The Mandalorian it perfectly shows how corrupt the New Republic are. Brotherhood was just chefs kiss though, it was one that generally suprised. I'm not the biggest prequel fan neither am I the biggest Anakin fan but I still really enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil much about the business on Cato Neimoidia but let's just say that this book serves as the perfect sandwich between Attack Of The Clones and The Clone Wars Show + Movie. Manifesting Mike Chen gets to write another Star Wars book.

Man what a season finale. The 8th Doctor Adventures Series One ended with a literal banger it was absolutely perfect. Didn't beat Immortal Beloved for me but I still really enjoyed it. Chills literal chills. Part 1 felt like a f*** Black Mirror episode and Part 2 felt like a high stakes war battle but set in an office. It was fantastic and I'm now sold on sticking with Big Finish and potentially buying some sets. Didn't care for them at first but I've absolutely grown to care about Lucy and The 8th Doctor as a Tardis team. Human Resources wrapped up all the character arcs really well. One hundred percent a good starting point into Big Finish and a range I'd highly recommend checking out.

Minor Detail was apart of my Readalong for Palestine I'm doing in order to educate people who are still ignorant about the slaughter happening over there. It was a very hard hitting read but something that was nesscary to pick up. It got rid of my eternal biases and really hit hard that before Oct 7th stuff was still bad we all just turned a blind eye. I also found it super clever that the pov was split from a Soldier without making him sympathetic and a young woman whos a journalist wanting to discover the truth of the crime the soldier committed. A short but good read. It was definitely a good recommendation from people.

Then we of course have the Tales of the Pizzaplex series. I didn't know what to expect but I was terribly disappointed! (Don't hurt me fnaf fans)! After reading Step Closer I thought Tales would set itself to a higher standard but it literally doesn't and that's its problem. Lallys Game had lots of wasted potential and it's a shame that the best part of the book was the Epilogue. It earned its 3.5 Stars especially after reading Under Construction which harmfully used Cancer as a horror thing which I'd super creepy and off putting not in the ways you think. I hope Happs is better, really hope Happs is better.

Conclusion

A very good reading month where I got all my planned side reads done, listened and finished the 8th Doctor Adventures Season 1 and devoured some awesome Star Wars novels. Next month is definitely the Gay Month but this month in terms of reads is the Political Thriller month Between Life Debt, Brotherhood and Minor Detail. Very story Political stories I enjoyed. April was great and with my main course work done I'll be able to focus on my reading more. I'm very curious about how May will be.

If you are interested in checking out my full reviews of the novels/audios featured in this post then you can find my profiles on Storygraph and Goodreads

Good Reads: Melody Soundy

Storygraph: melsage1822

Well it has been an absolute pleasure exploring my reading stats with you, so until next time for May's stats.... 😉

-Melody-

They/Them

[maishaaa]

Book Review: To Hate Adam Corner - By Ella Maise (Better than the first one)

❝Go ahead, tell me you hate me. I don’t care. I’d rather have you lie and say you hate me than have someone else who lies by saying I love you.❞ Synopsis: So you may ask, who is Adam Connor? He is the recently divorced, Academy Award-winning actor who just moved in next door with his kid. He also happens to be an exquisite male specimen and the most infuriating sly bastard I’ve ever come…

[terrypratchettestate]

Announcing the theme for Terry Pratchett Day 2024: START IN THE WRONG PLACE.

You'll hear people say time and time again that you can start anywhere with Terry Pratchett's work, but don't start in the right place*, so let's truly embrace the joy and chaos to be found in the many routes through Discworld and beyond.

We will be making Sunday 28th April, Sir Terry Pratchett's birthday, one brimming with bookish delight, celebrating the many ways we love and travel through his work, and we're inviting you to join us.

Follow along with The Terry Pratchett Estate to stay up to date. We will be sharing more ahead of the weekend on how to get involved.

*A lot of people say the right place is anything but the right place, which in turn, may make it an equally wrong place...

[ecle-c-tic]

hellooooo i'm feeling particularly inspired so I thought I'd do a lil event! I'm back to school now so this event will be spread out until after Thanksgiving! (like maybe until the 23 october?)

as many of you know i'm a big reader, so i thought it might be fun if we had a tiny little event about books! (we will return to the regular programing of movies and music very soon!)

I'm on the homestretch of my reading challenge (96/125!) and to keep myself motivated alongside my school work I thought I might get some final recommendations from you all. so, without further ado:

📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚

--

first! here are some important rules:

no limit to the number of requests or asks! no anons but everyone is welcome to participate!

**I am allowed to refuse certain authors or books if i'm not vaguely familiar with them or if they make me uncomfortable (coho, jkr, etc.)

I will be slow on these due to how time consuming my uni courses are/have been but my goal is to get everything done and finished before Halloween!

--

bookish celebration;

📚 ~ blog header based on your favourite book quote (if the context or theme isn't obvious please include it)

📙 ~ moodboard based on book/character/universe etc. (please include a short description just in case i'm not aware)

🔖~ tell me about one of your favourite books

☕ ~ send me this emoji and i'll assign your vibes to an author or book that I feel match you (mutuals only <3)

📖 ~ give me a few details (or an oddly specific prompt) and I'll recommend a book to you

🍂 ~ give me a number between 1 and 96 and I'll give you a short review of the corresponding book from my book challenge this year!

✒ ~ and a number between 1 and 96 for my favourite quote from the corresponding book!

💌~ Send me a trope or genre and I'll rate it! (fic tropes are fine too!!

--

request your books here!

--

hehe you're being tagged bc of this post:

@lady-ofmischief @whatmarisays @thislookinyoureyes @killerqueen-ofwillowgreen @trinikins