#jja harwood

[animezinglife]

J.J.A. Harwood was so real for writing a village of middle-aged people exploiting the younger men and women for work, working one single and grieving woman in particular half to death in a way that keeps her from saving their own children, then throwing her in an asylum when she bucks the narrative and their personal status quo.

The only one who understands her is the 90+-year-old woman who’s seen some sh*t in her life.

The Thorns Remain is a comically accurate social commentary.

[brothersandtragedies]

JJA Harwood, from "The Thorns Remain"

[aliteraryprincess]

July 2023 Wrap Up

July was a great month. We had a wonderful weeklong vacation in Gloucester, MA with my in-laws, celebrated the two year anniversary of adopting our cats, and got to spend plenty of time with friends. I certainly can't complain about my summer so far!

Books Read: 15

Look at me go! My favorite new read was The Travelling Cat Chronicles, which is now my favorite book of the year. I also learned upon rereading Mansfield Park that I actually really like it. And of course I had a great time rereading my ultimate comfort books: the All for the Game series. My least favorite was Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law, which I found completely disappointing. I like Rich's prose works a lot, but her poetry doesn't agree with me. Books marked with ® are rereads.

The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant by Margaret Oliphant - 3.5 stars

Under Two Flags by Ouida - 3.5

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen - 4 stars

Blush: Faces of Shame by Elspeth Probyn - 3 stars

Thief Liar Lady by D. L. Soria - 5 stars

Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law: Poems 1954-1962 by Adrienne Rich - 2 stars

Cujo by Stephen King - 5 stars

The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood - 4 stars

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - 5 stars ®

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa - 5 stars

A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections by James Edward Austen-Leigh, edited by Kathryn Sutherland - 4 stars

The Guest List by Lucy Foley - 4 stars

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic - 5 stars ®

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic - 5 stars ®

The King's Men by Nora Sakavic - 5 stars ®

On Tumblr:

Look, I have things here! I've started posting book photos again, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. There are also some lovely pictures of the cats taken at the kennel where they boarded during our vacation. I highly recommend checking them out because my boys are adorable (and clearly I'm not biased at all).

June Wrap Up

Tagged: Mid-Year Book Freak Out

Book Photography: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Book Photography: Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen

Book Photography: Vacation Book Haul!

Book Photography: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Book Quotes: The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood

Book Quotes: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Cat Photography: Butters and Pippin at the Kennel

aliteraryprincess' 40 Classics to Read Before 40

On YouTube:

Not as much here as usual because I took a week off from filming during the vacation. But to make up for it I have an almost hour long video ranting about Twilight, so 🤷‍♀️

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2023

June Wrap Up - 13 books!!!

Currently Reading 7/16/23

Rereading the Twilight Saga as an Adult

August TBR

Fairy Tale Friday: The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood

[booksandboba]

"His smile mended all her faults, and when he kissed her, she was made new."

The Shadow in the Glass, JJA Harwood

[bohobooks]

Which is the best book you have read so far?

That is an incredibly difficult question to answer honestly. I can give you top 3 for this year and last year though!

This year:

-Jurassic Park

- World War Z- Max Brooks

- Thorns Remain- J.J.A Harwood

Last year:

-Mortal Instruments series. (Shush and count it as one.)

-What Moves the Dead- T. Kingfisher

-The Graveyard Book- @neil-gaiman

[semper-legens]

134. The Shadow in the Glass, by J.J.A Harwood

Owned?: No, library Page count: 406 My summary: Ella was taken in by a rich woman when she was a child, but on the woman’s death, was immediately relegated to being a servant in her household. Desperate to escape, Ella makes a deal with a creature that rises from the book. Seven wishes, and after the last is complete, the creature gets her soul. Ella can fix everything that is wrong with her life...but can she keep her soul intact? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

I didn’t actually realise that this was a take on Cinderella for an embarrassingly long time. Which, come on. Look at the cover. But still. I thought this was an interesting way to adapt a fairytale into a new story - not a straight retelling of the story, placing it into another time and place and adding original ideas to create a spin on the concept. It worked really well! And the view it tells of working-class life and domestic service in Victorian England is really interesting.

Eleanor is our protagonist, once a lady, now a servant in her former household. She starts off with really good instincts - she wants to get out from under the thumb of her guardian, an abusive man who sexually extorts the young women working for him, then gets them fired and tossed out without a reference when they inevitably get pregnant. But the more she goes on, the more desperate she gets. She wants to protect herself and her fellow maids, but everything keeps backfiring in her face. I like that she had reasonable reactions to things and kept making logical choices, even when those choices were bad. The tragedy of the situation was the hopelessness of Ella’s situation, not that she is stupid with her choices.

The idea of wishes from a Faustian demon as a take on the fairy godmother was really cool. I liked how the demon didn’t try and manipulate or lie to Ella that much, she just leaves things out and lets the temptation of wishes draw the noose around Ella’s neck. She’s perfectly nice and civil, doesn’t overtly threaten Ella, she just waits and lets time and temptation doom Ella. The twist is that each wish requires a death - sometimes Ella gets what she wants in the form of a death, and sometimes the death just fuels the wish. After wish 2, Ella realises this, and vows not to make any more. This obviously doesn’t work. But she tries, damn it.

Like I said, this is an interesting take on the Cinderella story. Ella’s prince is a young man she grew up with and is very much in love with. The slippers are a pair of shoes she wishes for at the start of the story, to test that the wishes are real. The fairy godmother is a Faustian demon. It’s very creative, and works really well both as an original story and as an adaption of Cinderella. There are also very few direct winks to Cinderella, the narrative doesn’t ever lean on GEDDIT JUST LIKE IN CINDERELLA, it allows all of its concepts to stand on their own, which I very much appreciate.

Next up, more fairytales, and some stories the bees used to tell.

[scotchjolras]

Alright, JJA Harwood. You have my attention.

[mommy-mystic]

✨️2023 Bookish Questions! 📚🌟

📚 27 BOOK TAG QUESTIONS! 📖

❤️‍🔥All-Time Favorites & 2023 Mid-Year Tag!❤️‍🔥

I’m so excited to have found these lovely bookish questions. This year I've been reading more than I've ever read before and I'm really enjoying how wide the world is seeming to open up with every book I crack open!

Some of these questions are evergreen and some of them are geared more towards the books you've read so far this year! Feel free to answer them HOWEVER you see fit! (I'll leave the questions in a comment on this post!) Hopefully, they help you to learn a little bit about me as a reader and inspire you to pick up a new book this year!

1. Hardback or Paperback 📖

Paperback! 100%. Paperback books are the most comfortable to hold and read, the easiest to borrow or lend to a friend, the lightest to carry around/travel with AND the cheapest! Plus, you can bend and crack your own paperback copies to hell and back and who is going to stop you? However, I will say that the handful of paperbacks I've borrowed from the library this year have just made me SO NERVOUS. I just feel like they're so delicate and that I can crack them as wide as I would do to my own copies bc I'm just afraid they'll like look worn when I return them? Lol. In that circumstance, sometimes borrowing a hardcover is best!

2. Favorite Book You've Read This Year? 📚

Wow, it's got to be a tie between The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood, Cackle by Rachel Harrison, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia, AND of course, The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller.

3. Least Favorite Book You Read This Year? 😔

I reread the Twilight Saga this year - they help me cope, I guess? So I have got to say Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are so insanely whack. Why have I done this to myself so many times?

4. Love Triangles: Yes or No? 👎

No. I mean, why? I understand having some resentment or jealousy or self-consciousness between a character and their partner's ex but... as a plot device? No thanks!

5. The most recent book you just couldn’t finish? 😢

:( I couldn't finish Unnatural Magic by CM Waggoner. I'm a bit put off by the troll/human romance brewing right now and the character POV switching is not my cup of tea but I might still decide to pick it up at another time.

6. A book you’re currently reading? 📖

I'm currently reading The Weaver and The Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec! I just picked up this new release at a local bookstore in Edwards CO and it's already so exciting, magical, and just alluring! Set in 10th century Norway, I think - against the backdrop of these viking-raiders/communities and these 3 women trying to make lives for themselves/protect one another... I'm really intrigued.

7. The last book you recommended to someone? 👩‍🍼

I'm a mom so I like to recommend parenting books to my other mom friends! I've given away a copy of The Danish Way of Parenting and suggested Balanced and Barefoot to another friend! Someone recommended I read Bringing Up Bébé and I LOVED IT & it will now forever be among my new mom recommendations.

8. Oldest book you’ve read by publication date? ☠️

Surely, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Pride and Prejudice, then Persuasion by Jane Austen are some of the next oldest and then The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would be among the most RECENT of the oldest published books I've read - that I can remember!

9. What is the newest book you’ve read by publication date? 🌟

The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood (published Jan 2023, read in May 2023) A Novel Proposal by Denise Hunter (published Feb 2023, read in July 2023) and currently The Weaver & the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec (published July 2023, reading now in August 2023)!

10. Favorite author? 🩷

The writing of Silvia Moreno-Garcia has absolutely captivated me this year... I think I may end up picking up a 3rd book by her soon!

11. Buying books or borrowing books? 📚

I CANNOT afford to be buying many books! Lol. I have loved visiting my local libraries, listening to free audiobooks on the Libby app, and borrowing books from my family members! It rocks having your own copies sometimes (especially of kids books for my daughter), but truly, I don't love the clutter, the price tag, or feeling guilty about spending money on a book I didn't end up loving!

12. A book that you dislike that everyone else seems to love? 🫣

Everyone bought I'm Glad My Mom Died (even my husband) and no shade to anyone for their fascination with wanting to read it and learn more about the dark topics explored in that book, but I knew it wasn't for me. I've read tons of celebrity/comedian memoirs in the past and I am very turned off to them now! I may be hypersensitive to intense subject matter that's so realistic... However, I tend to find very niche books in this category interesting. I loved On Her Knees by Brenda Marie Davies, for instance! Not nearly as popular, but much more relatable and resonates more with me personally. I was prepared mentally/emotionally for this book and I felt really connected to the author instead of just voyeuristically consuming her deeply personal stories... if that makes sense!

13. Bookmarks or dog ears? 👀

Tell me why I never have enough bookmarks! I need to make more on my cricut! But usually bookmarks. Although I will dog-ear my personal paperback copies about 25% of the time!

14. A book you can always re-read? ❤️‍🔥

Pride & Prejudice!

15. Can you read while hearing music? 🎶

NO! I love silence ... a little white noise maybe! Quiet is hard to come by as a WFH toddler parent but when there is silence, you just RELISH in it! I think that's one of the reasons I took up reading this year, because it's such a quiet, soothing activity!

16. One or multiple POVs? 🤼‍♂️

I prefer a single POV! But I'm okay with 2 MAXIMUM, as long as the characters know each other from the first several chapters and aren't completely separate with dual storylines!

17. Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days? 🪑

Multiple days! Absolutely! Maybe even a week or two. At most a month! (although it can take me a year to complete some nonfiction books bc I tend to read them in little doses!)

18. A book you’ve read because of the cover? 🫧

I'd bought The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood because of the cover! It honestly rocked! Same with Cackle by Rachel Harrison. ANOTHER ONE THAT ROCKED! I was in a very witchy mood this spring! It paid off!

19. Biggest disappointment? 🤮

😞 Small Town, Big Magic. Listened to this on audiobook. It was sold as this Gilmore Girls-esque witchy fantasy but the conflict was so weird to me! I was disconnected from the main character bc as a 30-something y.o. she had seriously never pursued ANY romantic interest at all prior to the story. I would have loved if it revolved more around her bookstore she ran but I discovered that books where the entire town is MAGICAL/a community of witches is not as my speed as maybe 2-3 characters encountering magic on the DL. I also felt this way about From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper, though that was one was written exceptionally well.

20. Biggest surprise? ✨️

I just finished the Midnight Library after shying away from it for the last couple of years. After reading some mixed/less-than-stellar reviews, I had no idea if it would be for me... after the first couple pages I'd thought the book was going to be too sad/traumatic for me to be okay with BUT I ENDED UP REALLY LOVING IT! I loved the concept, the philosophy intertwined in it, and the ending!

I also loved the audiobook for The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn! I had no idea how wonderful it would be! Historical fiction about Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the female Soviet sniper who killed 309 nazis in WW2. It was so riveting and just... amazing. 👏

21. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)? ✍️

Sara A Mueller - her debut with The Bone Orchard was mind-bending and incredible.

Also just read my first Taylor Jenkins-Reid novel - After I Do, & I ended up really loving it! I was really rooting for the main characters and which I wasn't expecting!

22. What is your newest fictional crush? 🌶

I was a little bit in love with the Fae Lord in The Thorns Remain.... especially as he is gaining these flickers of humanity throughout the story... I almost believed that the main character was going to take him up on his offer to join his fae world in exchange for the safe return of her friends. However, the ending was MUCH better than that! I just appreciated how alluring and powerful this character was portrayed as. If this WERE a romance, it would have been incredibly toxic, but as my own little fantasy crush? WHY NOT?! I'd love to read about more characters with this vibe.

23. What is your newest favorite character? ❤️‍🔥

Charm from The Bone Orchard. She was so strong, so powerful, and the way she was able to DIVIDE her personalities and memories among these scientifically lab-grown ladies in order to cope with her reality was insane. She was like a queen. A steampunk queen. Always rocking the sexiest Victorian gowns and brightly candy-colored hair. I'm obsessed with her!

24. A book that made you cry? 😭

I was sobbing uncontrollably near the end of Beach Read by Emily Henry. (SPOILER: It was when she found the letters from her dad.) I didn't imagine a fun little summer romance would move me so much with that part of the plot. It hit me in the feels as a parent & a daughter myself, I think!

25. A book that made you happy? 🥰

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins-Reid ACTUALLY surprised me with its happy ending. It made me feel hopeful about marriage/long-term relationships and it's so hard to find stories that are honest about that! It is so easy to find books about failed marriages, and NEW love, right?! But what about those 10+ year-long relationships! I haven't been in one myself, but I aspire to it, and it was sweet to find a story that explored that!

26. What is the most beautiful book you've bought this year (or received)? 🌄

The most beautiful book this year, I actually borrowed from the library! It was Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by James Markert! The cover was gorgeous, but it was also so vivid and beautiful with scenes depicting a past timeline in 1880s Italy and 1940s California coast. It was DREAMY.

27. What books do you need to read by the end of the year? 📚

By the end of this year, I would love to finish my current read The Weaver & The Witch Queen. (That will put me at 30 books for the year - meeting my Goodreads goal!) But ideally, I think I would also like to read Jane Eyre for the first time, reread Pride & Prejudice, purchase few books about motherhood/second babies (my new kid is due in November!), and I am finally emotionally ready to finished SELLOUT - the nonfiction about early 2000s rock bands my husband bought me in 2021.

THAT'S IT!

Thanks so much for bearing with my rambling little bookish blog. It has been such a wild/good year.

I'm really looking forward to doing one of these tags with my husband soon to kind of touch base about what we've both been reading/enjoying and YEAH! I hope to keep reading your book tags and bookish blogs as well!

These particular questions were inspired by DiniPandaReads and the classic #midyearbooktag! Thank you so much!

[aquaburst3]

Last night, my friend, @stormkitty97, and I were talking about this article by JJA Harwood rating the different takes on Snow White using this scale to test if your female character is actually "strong"/well-crafted...

Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?

Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?

Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?

Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?

Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?

Does she develop over the course of the story/series?

Does she have a weakness?

Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?

How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?

How does she relate to other female characters?

We tried out this scale on Vil, albeit with an altered version since he's a guy, and got a 8.5, which isn't half bad. Disney's Snow White got a 3.5. (The best scoring Snow White in that article is the one from Once Upon a Time, if you were wondering.) If that doesn't say how much better written Vil is compared to Snow White, and I don't know what does.

(As a side note, I always use this scale to test out how well crafted my female leads are in my fics and original fiction. I tried this out on my own "Yuu", Adriana before making my fic series. She scores a 9 when you take spoiler reasons into account. Not bad.)

[cmcwritingismylife]

The Books I Read in 2022

1. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 

2. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan 

3. The Diviners by Libba Bray 

4. The Redbreast (Harry Hole Detective novels #3) by Joe Nesbo

5. Revival by Stephen King

6. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

7. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

8. House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A Craig 

9. Female Academy by Joseph S Coavis

10. A Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood

11. Nemesis (Harry Hole detective novels #4) by Jo Nesbo

12. Bound by Faith by Joseph S Coavis

13. This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

[therealfailwhale]

Books I read in January!!

Poetry

Emerald Wounds by Joyce Mansour

The Oasis of Now by Sohrab Sepehri

The Tent Generations (Palestinian anthology)

✨Before the Next Bomb Drops by Remi Kanazi

Nonfiction

Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price

✨Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell

The World Record Book of Racist Stories by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

Fiction

✨The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood

The Guardian of Fukushima by Fabien Grolleau

The Devil in Tartan by Elisabeth Ogilvie

[animezinglife]

Not victim-blaming by any means, but I really need to know why anyone would think it's a good idea to go get drunk and start ritualistic dances around a fire deep in the woods in the middle of the night and expect anything good to come out of it.

Especially in a very old forest where the elderly still speak Gaelic.

[brothersandtragedies]

JJA Harwood, from "The Thorns Remain"

[aliteraryprincess]

She would read until her eyes ached. She would drown herself in words, sink into the vanilla-smell of the binding, replace her blood with ink. She'd feast on other worlds and make herself anew.

JJA Harwood, The Shadow in the Glass

[wonkyreads]

JOMP BPC - May 31st: read in may

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

'The Shadow In The Glass' is a dark Cinderella story that didn't work for me because it ends in tragedy, and I kind of still want my fairytales to have happy endings, or at least not completely negative ones, however dark it gets along the way. I suppose the fact that her 'fairy godmother' appears when she bleeds on a copy of Faust, and grants wishes that come at the cost of people's lives, might have been a clue, but I still kept reading to see how Eleanor was going to come out of this… Unfortunately, the combination of sympathetic beginning and this sort of ending also makes the theme of the book seem like it's supposed to be that it sure sucked to work below the stairs for a negligent and rapey master, but trying to better your station is going to damn you and everyone you care about, and also weren't you always an uncaring and vicious little thing all along? (As opposed to a book where the main character is unsympathetic to begin with - there's sometimes a pleasure in reading about a bunch of miserable sobs who backstab and betray until they all get what's coming to them.) Anyway, I was unhappy, and I kind of wish I had back the time that I spent reading this; I'm sure it's a book for someone, but it definitely wasn't for me.