#gabriel st. john

[jessread-s]

✩🏹❤️‍🔥Review:

How many rules do I need to break to read MacLean’s debut novel again for the first time?! 

“Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake” is the perfect regency romance that alternates between Lady Calpurnia “Callie” Hartwell’s and the Marquess of Ralston’s, points-of-view. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading from Callie’s perspective because I could see so much of myself in her. At the beginning of the novel, she views herself as too plain, too ordinary, and too curvy in comparison to the women around her. She believes that those qualities are the reason why she has been a spinster for so long. Instead of continuing to live a life dictated by society, Callie decides to let go and embrace adventure. Her newfound carefreeness paired with her natural kind and loving nature ends up ensnaring the Marquess of Ralston.

Gabriel St. John, the marquess, never planned to fall in love with Callie. In fact, he swore off love altogether the day his mother left the family and broke his father’s heart. Not wanting to experience the same pain his father felt, he chooses to live the life of a rake. But the more time he spends with Callie, the more he learns what love really is and how badly he wants to give up his lifestyle for her. He sees Callie’s beauty and is set on helping her see it too. 

As a reader, I loved Callie and Ralston’s development as characters and the little moments that they shared. Their late night adventures, dances, fencing matches, and horseback rides are swoon worthy and only grow more intimate as the novel progresses. 

➤ 4.25 stars

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[diioonysus]

love + art

[lycanlovebites]

You know what? Fuck you *hits Father Ardelian with the shoujo filter and babygirlifies your priest*

@stjohnstarling

[tournament-of-x]

The Hole

Announcement!

The following ten characters will be receiving new portraits for all future matches! On the left are their old portraits, and on the right are their new portraits.

The Five-In-One | Stepford Cuckoos

Sunfire | Shiro Yoshida

M / Penance | Monet St. Croix

Galura | Gabrielle Diwa

Thunderbird | John Proudstar

Black Priestess | Selene Gallio

Bei the Blood Moon

Marrow | Sarah Rushman

Lactuca the Knower

Prodigy | David Alleyne

Credit for Prodigy’s new portrait goes to @poorlydone-xmensketches.

If you have any complaints or criticisms regarding this decision, feel free to make them known.

[potionboy3]

undefined

ANNIE’S BI CHARACTERS  | ALL ERAS | BI BI BI 

I’ve wanted to make one of these forever and it’s finally here!! It was a big big big project. 

In the video: Julian Flamel feat. Anthony Hawthorne @gaygryffindorgal & Danica Killingbeck @cursebreakerfarrier  Richard Beck feat. River St. James & Baby Quinn  @gaygryffindorgal Ezra Greenaway feat. Charles Hartford, Agata della Rovere & Olyvar Yaxley @gaygryffindorgal Elian Goldcrest feat. Cassia Malfoy, Malcolm Stolberg-Burke, (Theo Goldcrest), Gabriel Grimm, Henry of Alderly @gaygryffindorgal,  Primrose Gray @endlessly-cursed & John Arthur Dawn Harvelle feat. Jimmy Crouch, Pandora Lovelace @gcldensnitch, Quincey Alderly @gaygryffindorgal

Declan Rovere feat. Roe Malinda @gaygryffindorgal Cassandra Vole & Daniel Page Kit Enfield feat. Ares Gaunt @gaygryffindorgal & Odessa Avery @cursed-herbalist

John Arthur feat. Theo Goldcrest @gaygryffindorgal

Jimmy Crouch feat. Jupiter Durand @cursed-herbalist , Dawn Harvelle, Rocky Weasley, @magicallymalted Rosa Yaxley feat. Rocky Weasley @magicallymalted , Mary Ann Von Deyne @endlessly-cursed, (Jimmy Crouch) Valentin Hartford feat. Juno Creed @gaygryffindorgal & Clea Malfoy

[mariocki]

Man in a Suitcase: Three Blinks of the Eyes (1.28, ITC, 1968)

"This is your American sense of honour?"

"No, man, that's just a little English one-upmanship."

[adamwatchesmovies]

Body Snatchers (1993)

I meant to watch every film adaptation of Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers in release order but I messed up and saw 1993's Body Snatchers second. I made a mistake but don't feel too bad about it. In many ways, this film surpasses the original thanks to its spectacular special effects, atmosphere and chilling imagery.

Environmental Protection Agency agent Steve Malone (Terry Kinney) is moving to an Alabama military base with his family to test the effects of the military's actions on the surroundings. There, his daughter Marti (Gabrielle Anwar) notices abnormal behavior from several people. When her little brother says their mom (Meg Tilly) is a doppelganger, she believes him... but who else will?

Body Snatchers suffers from the fact that its title gives away too much, though not as much as the previous films. If you don’t know what the deal is, stop reading and go see this movie.

Barring one scene where a composite shot is rough around the edges, it all looks very convincing and boy does that make for a creepy experience. The characters are warned not to go to sleep. Once you see why, you won’t be able to close your eyes anymore. It’s a perfect example of gore used correctly. It grosses you out but mostly, it unsettles. It makes your skin crawl and makes you sweat.

Like the original picture, Body Snatchers can be a bit slow at points. You know where the plot is headed so you may grow a bit restless, at least at first. There is a turning point where Marti realizes what is happening. It sends a chill down your spine. You’re filled with the kind of panic that only comes from the absolute certainty of imminent, unavoidable defeat. Just when you think there’s a crack for our heroes to slip through, the film takes advantage of your lowered guard and comes at you full force. It pours the terror and despair down your throat. While the special effects are extremely effective, it’s the little moments that have the biggest impact. The emotional bits between Marti and the man she’s starting to fall for, Timm (Billy Wirth), make you think everything's going to be ok. It makes the scene where our heroes realize they've been led into a trap that much more devastating.

Body Snatchers doesn’t include just one shot where the true horror of the story dawns on you. There are at least 7. That’s a rarity even in the best chillers. The pacing issues may not even be there if you have not seen the previous versions (or any number of the derivatives which have come over the years) and I get the feeling that I'll like this one even more next time. (Full-screen version on DVD, July 13, 2018)

[judahmaccabees]

gl in Hell now turds

Perverts suck Mammon's cock for a living and are Damned to Hell for forcing it on you.

Spiritual sloths don't help the innocent but attempt to rape them into conformity.

Matthew 25:41-46

Jude 1:8

CELESTIAL

it's what Doctors do. We Heal.

Surgery too.

---

Sweet oligarchs on thy pedestals, stamping out the innocent for Mammon, saying God's name,

YOU WILL LEARN THE *NAME* OF GOD.

Alam-Alak-Am

Poison, Pain, Panacea

Perseverance Preservation & Possession

Holy Spirit of Truth,

Passion of the Prince of Peace,

Bitter Herb Healing

[discoveringorthodoxy]

Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

Christ is Baptized in the Jordan by John! 

Hello my brothers and sisters and I pray that you all had a blessed Epiphany/Theophany! On January 7th, we celebrate the Synaxis of St. John the Forerunner! St. John is my patron saint and so I would like to look into his life in commemoration for this feast day! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. John the Forerunner was the son of the Prophet Zacharias and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a kinswoman of the Virgin Mary, making St. John a relative of Jesus. For years Elizabeth had remained barren until they became old. 

One day during the time of the Atonement, while serving as high priest before God in his division, Zacharias came to burn incense in the temple of the Lord. Meanwhile, outside of the temple, a multitude of the people were praying. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. When Zacharias saw the angel, he felt troubled and fear. (Luke 1:8-12) 

The angel told Zacharias, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:13-17). 

 However, Zacharias was unsure of this news, as he and his wife were old. As a result, the angel revealed himself as Gabriel, who “stands in the presence of God” (Luke 1:19) and was sent to give Zacharias the good news about John. However, because he did not believe Gabriel’s words, he would be mute until these things came to pass. And when Zacharias came out of the temple, he was mute and Elizabeth conceived (Luke 1:18-23). When Mary, who was conceived with Jesus, visited Elizabeth, the “babe leaped in her womb” and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41).

Eventually, the time came for John to be born and on the eighth day, he was circumcised. Everyone thought he would be named after his father, Zacharias. However, Elizabeth told them that he would be called John. When they asked Zacharias about the baby’s name, he wrote on a tablet saying that the baby’s name would be John. Immediately, “his tongue was loosed, and he spoke, praising God” (Luke 1:57-64).

Now after John’s birth, Zacharias was murdered in the temple. Afterwards, St. John and his mother fled to the desert, where he was raised. As a result, he lived as an ascetic from the earliest part of his life. (”Patron Saint”)

When he grew up, St. John preached in the wilderness of Judea, telling people to,” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:1-2). St. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt on his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. People from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all of the region around the Jordan went to him to be baptized in the Jordan, where they would confess their sins (Matthew 3:4-6). St. John would teach these people repentance, but also tell them that someone greater would come after him and baptize with the Holy Spirit (”Patron Saint”). 

When Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him, St. John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”. However, Jesus answered, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And so, St. John the Baptist consented and baptized Christ. 

St. John would always speak the Truth, even the truth about tetrarch Herod. He told Herod, that it was unlawful for him to have Herodias, who was his brother’s wife. As a result, he put St. John in prison. However, he did not put him to death because he feared the crowds, for they considered him a prophet (Matthew 14:1-5). 

However, while celebrating Herod’s birthday, Herodias’ daughter danced for them, which pleased Herod. As a result, he promised her to give her whatever he asked for. So, being prompted by her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. This saddened Herod but he fulfilled his oath. So, St. John the Baptist was beheaded in prison and his head was brought on a platter to the girl, who gave it to her mother. Afterwards, St. John’s disciples came and took away the body and buried it. They then went and reported St. John’s death to Jesus. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. John the Forerunner played an important part leading up to Jesus as well as a righteous life. He spoke for the Truth and nothing but the Truth. He was humbled by Jesus and baptized our Savior in the Jordan. And when he was a babe, he leapt in the womb for joy at the sight of Mary and Jesus. This previous event is especially noteworthy considering in the United States, the overturn of Roe v Wade, which permitted abortions in the 1st trimester, occurred on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

May St. John the Baptist continue to intercede for us. And may God bless all of you, and until next time!

- Joanna  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sources: 

“Patron Saint.” St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, https://stjohnthebaptist.co.goarch.org/about/saint.

The Orthodox Study Bible. Thomas Nelson, 2008.

[macrolit]

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

NYT Article.

*************

Q: How many of the 100 have you read? Q: Which ones did you love/hate? Q: What's missing?

Here's the full list.

100. Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson 99. How to Be Both, Ali Smith 98. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 97. Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward 96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman 95. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 94. On Beauty, Zadie Smith 93. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 92. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante 91. The Human Stain, Philip Roth 90. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen 89. The Return, Hisham Matar 88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 87. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters 86. Frederick Douglass, David W. Blight 85. Pastoralia, George Saunders 84. The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee 83. When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labutat 82. Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchor 81. Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan 80. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante 79. A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin 78. Septology, Jon Fosse 77. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 75. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 74. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout 73. The Passage of Power, Robert Caro 72. Secondhand Time, Svetlana Alexievich 71. The Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen 70. All Aunt Hagar's Children, Edward P. Jones 69. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander 68. The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 67. Far From the Tree, Andrew Solomon 66. We the Animals, Justin Torres 65. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth 64. The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai 63. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill 62. 10:04, Ben Lerner 61. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 60. Heavy, Kiese Laymon 59. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides 58. Stay True, Hua Hsu 57. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 56. The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner 55. The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright 54. Tenth of December, George Saunders 53. Runaway, Alice Munro 52. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson 51. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson 50. Trust, Hernan Diaz 49. The Vegetarian, Han Kang 48. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 47. A Mercy, Toni Morrison 46. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 45. The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson 44. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 43. Postwar, Tony Judt 42. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James 41. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 40. H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 39. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan 38. The Savage Detectives, Roberto Balano 37. The Years, Annie Ernaux 36. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 35. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 34. Citizen, Claudia Rankine 33. Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 32. The Lines of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst 31. White Teeth, Zadie Smith 30. Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward 29. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt 28. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 27. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 26. Atonement, Ian McEwan 25. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 24. The Overstory, Richard Powers 23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro 22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo 21. Evicted, Matthew Desmond 20. Erasure, Percival Everett 19. Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe 18. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 17. The Sellout, Paul Beatty 16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 15. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 14. Outline, Rachel Cusk 13. The Road, Cormac McCarthy 12. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion 11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz 10. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson 9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 8. Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald 7. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 6. 2666, Roberto Bolano 5. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen 4. The Known World, Edward P. Jones 3. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 2. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson 1. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

[metamorphesque]

🌼 poems (and a love letter) that helped me live through july 🌼

One Or Two Things, Mary Oliver

Kitchen Song, Laura Kasischke

The Breathing, Denise Levertov

Trapped, Charles Bukowski

Precognition, Margaret Atwood

Rain, John Burnside

Looking, Walking, Being, Denise Levertov

At Joan's, Frank O'Hara

You, Carol Ann Duffy

Time, Louise Gluck

Effort at Speech Between Two People, Muriel Rukeyser

Still, A. R. Ammons

Sonnet XL, Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet XLIII, Edna St. Vincent Millay

Listen, W. S. Merwin

A Thin Line, Ryuichi Tamura (translated by Samuel Grolmes and Yumiko Tsumura)

Driveway, Richard Siken

The Sentence, Anna Akhmatova

Wanting to Die, Anne Sexton

Eating Together, Kim Addonizio

The Look, Sara Teasdale

The Starry Night, Anne Sexton

Hammond B3 Organ Cistern, Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Richard Feynman's love letter to his deceased wife, 1946

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens filming locations masterpost! ❤ 🐍😊 Part 3

(here to part 1 :))

(here to part 2 :))

Here to the map :)

S2 London (cont):

C rushing to A after Beelzebub's visit (S02E01) - Regent Street St James's, London

Scene: Crowley rushing to Aziraphale after Beelzebub told with that anyone who will be find helping Gabriel will be dealt with extreme sanctions

Availability (as of 2024): street all day

Link on the map

BONUS:

The 1990 book promo photo - Kensal Green Cemetery, London

The photo with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that appeared on the 1990 back cover of Good Omens was taken in February 1990 in Kensal Green Cemetery. After the photo was taken and developed they noticed the winged hourglasses and used it as a design motif for the book. The mausoleum is the Hugh mausoleum of Baron John Frederick Andrew Huth, a banker that died 1864.

Availability (as of 2024):

The cemetery is open cca 9-17 but it good to check the opening times on their page since the two entrances slightly differs and times also differ on Sundays and bank holidays.

The mausoleum can be seen from the cemetery path but to get close to it you have to go through overgrown grass and a bit of bramble.

If you go, check if the one of the smol fygo gifts are still there :) ❤ .

Link on the map

Whew! This masterpost took me several weeks, hope you enjoyed it and it might help you plan your trip to see the Good Omens places! :) ❤ 🐍😊 Wahoo! :)

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Joan of Arc – John Everett Millais // Mosaic of the Archangel Uriel in St. John’s Church – James Powell and Sons of the Whitefriars Foundry // Sancta Lilias – Dante Gabriel Rossetti // Milky Way Upon Giewont – Henryk Szczyglinski // Folio 13v – from the Rabula Gospels // Representation of a Deer’s Antlers – Sándor Szapary de Szapar // Not Strong Enough – boygenius

[literaryvein-reblogs]

can i request any words/ phrases/ themes linking to the word ‘relic’?

Writing Notes: Relic

Relic - an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr; souvenir, memento

Relics - remains, corpse; a survivor or remnant left after decay, disintegration, or disappearance; a trace of some past or outmoded practice, custom, or belief

Reliquaries - the containers that store and display relics

Where the bones of martyrs are buried, devils flee as from fire and unbearable torture. —St John Chrysostom

Etymology

Middle English relik, from Anglo-French relike, from Medieval Latin reliquia, from Late Latin reliquiae, plural, "remains of a martyr", from Latin, "remains", from relinquere "to leave behind"

Related Words

Afterimage - a lasting memory or mental image of something

Artifact - an object remaining from a particular period

Corpus - the body of a human or animal especially when dead

Decedent - a person who is no longer living; a deceased person

Memento - souvenir

Oddment - something left over; remnant

Oeuvre - a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, an artist, or a composer

Remnant - a usually small part, member, or trace remaining

Souvenir - something kept as a reminder (as of a place one has visited)

Vestige - a trace, mark, or visible sign left by something (such as an ancient city or a condition or practice) vanished or lost

Martin Luther complained about the profusion of relics and the absurd claims being made for them: "What lies there are about relics! One claims to have a feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel, and the bishop of Mainz has a flame from Moses’ burning bush. And how does it happen that eighteen apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only twelve?"

Examples

ANCIENT GREEK RELICS. At Athens the supposed remains of Oedipus and Theseus enjoyed an honor that is very difficult to distinguish from a religious cult.

BUDDHIST RELICS. Relics of the Buddha and various saints were (and still are) venerated. Following the Buddha's death, his bones and teeth were divided for the purpose of being used as relics in order to illustrate his teaching of impermanence (anitya). These relics were so valued that they caused armed conflict between factions for possession of them. Afterward, these relics were taken throughout Asia with the gradual spread of Buddhism.

CHRISTIAN RELICS. Since the dawn of Christianity, relics have been an important part of Christian devotionalism. During the Middle Ages, the selling of relics became a lucrative business. The concept of physical proximity to the “holy” was considered extremely important. A pilgrim's possession and veneration of a relic was seen as a means to become closer to God. Instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to become near to a venerated saint, a Christian could enjoy closeness with him/her through their relic at home.

MUSLIM RELICS. Although certain sects of Islam strongly discourage (or outwardly prohibit) the veneration of relics, a very large collection of Muslim relics is preserved in the Sacred Trusts, located in Istanbul, which contains more than 600 treasured pieces in the Topkapi Palace Museum.

The Roman Catholic Church makes a distinction between veneration and worship of relics and icons.

3 Categories of Relics According to the Vatican

First-Class Relics: Items directly associated with the events of Christ's life (manger, cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, a limb, etc.).

Second-Class Relics: An item that the saint wore (e.g., sock, shirt, glove). Also included are items that the saint owned or frequently used (e.g., a crucifix, book). An item more important in the saint's life is considered a more important relic.

Third-Class Relics: Anything that has touched a first- or second-class relic of a saint.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hope this helps! Do tag me or send me a link to your writing if it does. I'd love to read your work.

[amuseoffyre]

"And the dead shall leave their graves and walk the earth once more"

References to resurrection and the second coming foreshadowing in S2.

Gabriel's quote taken loosely from the Revelations of St John of Patmos, forewarning of the Second Coming

Job's three children believed dead and 'returned to life'

The dead bodies taken out of the earth to be put into the hands of a 'resurrectionist'

The three Nazis raised to zombie-status from dead to walk the earth

The inverse Resurrectionist signs - one of them showing Mr. Dalrymple and the other showing Jesus raising Lazarus from the grave

[magpiefngrl]

personal Top-20 Fave Books of the 21st century

I'm sure we've all seen the NYT list of the 100 best books of the 21st century and perhaps some of you caught the second list, Readers Pick their Best Books of the 21st century, after all the comments the newspaper got about the first one.

There are issues with both these lists for me, because I read mostly genre, I read more international books, and I used to read a ton of YA in the past. This is a predominantly US-centric list, with the kind of books that the readers of a highbrow newspaper would gravitate towards and it definitely suffers from recency bias.

Of course the great thing about these kind of lists is that they give rise to discussions. And I've been thinking of what my personal Top-20 would be for books that stood out in the past 24 years.

I am the kind of person who has forgotten what she ate yesterday, but luckily Goodreads doesn't forget and I've been doing the yearly reading challenge since 2013, which was a great help. If I've forgotten something amazing is because I read it before social media.

Here we go, the books published this century that blew me away:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Γκιακ by Δημοσθένης Παπαμάρκος

Captive Prince by CS Pacat

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Brand New Ancients by Kae Tempest

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Mo Dao Zu Shi by MXTX

Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

The Amber Spyglass by P. Pullman

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by S. Clarke

The Likeness by Tana French

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Storm of Swords by GRRM

Long Price Quartet (a series, I'm cheating) by Daniel Abraham

Runners up:

The Dream Thieves, Brothers of the Wild North Sea, Spectred Isle, The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh, Bel Canto, Amberlough, Vita Nostra.

Anyone want to do something similar? Consider yourselves tagged and PLEASE tag me so I can see!