#mogseltof reads

[mogseltof]

3, 10 and 17 for the book ask!

eyyy!

3: Top five books I read this year (excluding answers to the other questions because I ate well this year)

A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig (I'm currently waist deep in the follow up "I Alone Can Fix This") which is some of the most detailed investigative journalism applied to biography I've ever read, this thing is a doorstopper and covers the Trump presidency in great detail while still being extremely engaging. I Alone Can Fix This somehow manages to be even better at splitting the focus of its narrative but I haven't finished it yet, these were easily my best impule pick ups from the library this year.

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang I read for bookclub and it was one of my favourites! The most lasting impression I got from the narrative was one of "Oh this is what it is like to exist while Chinese on the broader internet", it's a sci fi that takes a leaf out of the Dispossessed following the narrative of an 18 year old girl returning home to Mars after spending her teen years on Earth in capitalist society and the effects of everything around that. Very cool and an extremely good author.

Hell House by Richard Matheson is not the most recent release but I only got round to it this year and Jesus H Christ. Prototypical haunted house novel, you can see the fingerprints this thing left over the horror genre in its entirety, I loved every minute of it. Haunted houses, 20s occultism taken too far, seventies paranormal scientists trying to be taken seriously, washed up child psychics, New Age sensibilities put to the test, this thing has everything *pats the roof of this sucker*

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka I finished while camping in August and is one that's going to stay with me for a while. I loved this book, I loved its presentation of the afterlife, I loved the main character, and it's definitely the 'further reading' book of the year for me given how little I know about Sri Lanka's history, especially in this context of late 80s/early 90s conflicts. This one's my hard recommend of the list.

Leech by Hiron Ennes was deeply fascinating and threw me for the most loops. I love a hivemind and reading from the perspective of one was so cool, especially at the points of [redacted] and [redacted]. I was also totally taken in by the historicality of the setting so when I realised that what I was reading was actually [redacted] it hooked me even more. The interplay with the demographic elements as experienced by a parasitic hivemind was also deeply fascinating, this was my fastest read on this list because once I started I couldn't stop.

Honorary mentions to: The Darkest Web by Eileen Ormsby, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Mister Magic by Kiersten White, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero (minus the last like, 500 words rip), and Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman.

10: My favourite new release of 2023

I'm not great at keeping up with new releases but this one goes to my only preorder of the year,

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, which I absolutely devoured. There's something about the mid century occultists that I find both hilarious and fascinating, and Kingfisher/Vernon managed to hit exactly on what I love about reading about them, while also capturing the horror of being stuck in your racist grandma's house. I'm a huge fan of her protagonists as well, and 'furloughed archaeoentomologist' is overflowing with great character bits and I love her. I want to reread this book now because I opened it up to the first chapter to make sure I was remembering her job accurately and got totally sucked into the vulture commentary in the first few pages. Goddamnit.

In close runner up is Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle because holy fuck man, I read that like 2 days ago and I'm a little bit obsessed. I've known Rose Darlings. I've met all of those characters (except maybe the demons). Incredible work by the Tingler Master.

17: A book that suprised me with how good it was

Fairy Tale by Stephen King. One of my friends gave this to me right at the beginning of the year because she'd bought a copy and then had two friends buy it for her as well, and holy fuck mom. I'm really on and off with King, I love some of his stuff, but when I don't like it I hate it, and Fairy Tale I genuinely loved. There were definitely bits that made me go 'mmm', but King also had the forethought to cover for it in later narration which I appreciated ahahaha. I've never gelled with his fantasies before, so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one, but this is the closest to a spiritual successor to the Oz novels as I've ever read, and I loved his take on it. Still kind of amazed at how much I loved it.

[dirtydragonthoughts]

Transformers Yuletide Literary Fest - Day 4

Welcome to the Transformers Yuletide Literary Fest! I'll be recommending one or two fics every day until Christmas. Feel free to join in if you'd like (I'm using the tag #tylf2023 for this.) All fics are complete!

(If I can easily find a Tumblr account for the author I'll tag them. If you know of an author who has a Tumblr account and I didn't tag them, please let me know so I can add it! )

Fics in my recommendations will come in two different flavours: tangy and spicy. 😄 As always, curate your own online reading experience, and mind the tags if necessary for your own safety. ♥

Tangy

Title: Stage Practice

Author: @mogseltof

Rating: Teen

Wordcount: 1517

Summary: Jazz and Soundwave 'run into' each other at a human club and argue talk about music while attempting to parse social norms, Cybertronian and American alike.

Why I love it: I have a special fondness for quiet little character studies like this, especially when it's two people navigating around each other. I especially liked the dynamic between the two, and it makes me wonder about their pasts and where they might be going.

Spicy

Title: Burn the Midnight Oil

Author: @eatyoursparkout

Rating: Explicit

Wordcount: 7763

Summary: Ratchet rekindles a med school fling, for better or for worse.

Why I love it: *slams the door open* Hello, hi, yes, I'm here to talk about the Flatline/Ratchet agenda. That's exactly what this story delivers, and it delivers it well. Two old bots with a history together, who stood on opposite sides of the war, reacquainting themselves over some late night drinks which result in some very hot fragging? Yes please.

[tiefling-queer]

rules: tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better

oh fuck i found this in my drafts from 2 months ago and never even put who tagged me fuck

top three ships: (this changes literally every time i answer this) jam, widomauk, rosemary homestuck2 idk her

lipstick or chapstick: neither. stuff on the lips... is bad...

last movie: last movie season 2 when i think the last movie i watched was kikis delivery service

last song: hurry, hurry by air traffic controller

reading: i went to college and now im illiterate

watching: not watching anything right now

totally spies or powerpuff girls: totally spies

bonus question: how do you take your tea? uh red or chai tea with milk and honey, or herbal with nothing added

ok i will tag @clown-brigade @none-sex-left-gay @quarterinthequeerjar @coyote-prophet @adhdbeowulf @deadgirlrising @alcohoelism @mogseltof and @polymathematical

[thesewersofparis]

mogseltof replied to your post: mogseltof replied to your post : ...

Omfg Okay, this bears some more research when I have the time, this is incredible. I’m mostly wondering if this is a similar practise over here, so WOW

:DDDDDD

ikr it was so wild to read about the first time 

in my experience most doors over here are pvc or wood and even if they do have a cardboard core the surrounding material is 100% too thick to punch through? like i have genuinely never heard of kicking through or damaging doors being a thing here

[read-me-loud-and-queer]

Tagged by @sumide1711uu

IN GENERAL REAL NAME:  Rani NICKNAMES: not really SEXUALITY: biromantic asexual ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGGViLwHEUk WHEN SWIMMING, DO YOU PREFER TO DO IT IN THE OCEAN, OR IN A LAKE?: lol i can’t swim 

ON TUMBLR: ANYONE YOU WOULD LIKE TO MEET IN REAL LIFE?: i’d love to meet @underyourbedisafriend, @pedigreepossum, @renaissance-aeroplane, @medweds, @punkcaptainkirk, @clownsintown, @thedeadmanremains, @crustywaifupillows, @mogseltof, @polymathematical, @officialqueer, @schrodingers-rufus​, @didsomeonesaymarblehornets​, @tenderqueerbutch​ - there’s a lot of people on here who are super cool and sweet and i want to meet so many of you ANYONE YOU HAVE MET IN REAL LIFE?: nope, but i did skype addi that one time WHEN DID YOU FIRST JOIN? HOW OLD IS YOUR CURRENT ACCOUNT?: made this blog back in august of 2012, but i didn’t become active until about december of 2012. that makes this disaster over 4 years old jesus ANY PEEVES?: never ending discourse reverse ouroboros UNPOPULAR OPINION: pineapple on pizza isn’t just good - it’s THE BEST

FEELINGS: DO YOU EASILY GET JEALOUS?: i think so DO YOU EASILY GET ANGRY?: lol yeah  ARE YOU EASY TO CHEER UP?: idk ARE YOU GOOD AT HIDING YOUR EMOTIONS?: lmao no WHAT’S THE VERY BEST WAY TO CHEER YOU UP?: food, dnd, and goofs

RELATIONSHIPS: ARE YOU CURRENTLY IN A RELATIONSHIP? nope DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE A CRUSH ON SOMEONE?: hahaha when don’t i IF YES, MIGHT THAT SOMEONE BE READING THIS?: *laughs* *cries* DO YOU KISS ON THE FIRST DATE?: how else do i know it’s a date DO YOU PREFER GOING OUT, OR STAYING HOME, WHEN IT COMES TO DATES?: depends on the weather, tbh

THINGS: FAVORITE DRINK: mt dew FAVORITE FOOD: bread, pasta, sushi, butter chicken, burgers, MOST CALMING PLACE?: my car MOST STRESSFUL PLACE?: my parents’ place MOST PRIZED POSSESSION?: *shrug* my hats??

I’m tagging: anyone i already tagged above, @onthewayhero, @noneofthislavendershit @thecrownofflames, @i-want-it-on-fire, @flirtandmurder

[sparetimeposts]

Was tagged by @anaemicroyaltyhairsprayqueen Rules: Answer all the questions in a new post and then tag 5 people: 5 things you’ll find in my bag: Pens, my laptop, a pad of paper, my phone charger and glitter. 5 things you’ll find in my bedroom: Usually too many books, a poster or two, probably condoms, clothes on the floor and a castle costume Dan painted for me. 5 things I’ve always wanted to do: Get my undergraduate degree, see a few parts of Europe, write some kind of coherent plot for something from beginning to end, do some more official volunteer work that helps LGBT youths, get something published whether academic or otherwise. 
5 things that make me happy: Dan, my housemates+friends, reading, the fact that Liverpool Pride is soon aaand showers. 
5 things I’m currently into: D&D, Divinity: Original Sin, Kesha's new song, cooking, RPDR. 
5 things on my to do list:
Send SO MANY EMAILS, get everything written down for my uni's LGBT+ society for next year, keep writing the D&D campaign I'll be DMing, get my hair cut and do a loooot of reading. 5 people to tag: I doubt I can even think of 5 people since I don't talk to many people on here soooo @sexmeupscotty @mogseltof @queenofthewirral (I just kinda picked people I thought would see this and not be annoyed by it at least oops sorry)

[ao3feed-tamorapierce]

Stand of the Lioness

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2DtMIoH

by Mogseltof

Drabbles about the Lisa Lisa the Lioness, Prince Jonathan Joestar (JoJo, to those he trusts), and the menacing figure of his beloved cousin, Duke Dio.

Words: 303, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Tortall - Tamora Pierce

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Gen

Characters: Elizabeth Joestar | Lisa Lisa, Jonathan Joestar, Robert Edward O. Speedwagon, Pillar Men (JoJo)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Drabbles, Wordcount: 100, 100 word fics

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2DtMIoH

[mogseltof]

4,10 and 11 for the book ask :)

4. What are your top 3 comfort reads?

God, I usually tend to childhood nostalgia for comfort reads! I'll throw one of those in there: Trixie Belden Mysteries (by Julie Campbell Tatham and "Kathryn Kennedy"). Kid detective stories set in the late 50s, aged a little better than I was expecting, but fully fucked up my sense of what a dollar was worth when I was a child 😆 (The various Blyton detective groups did not age nearly as well, but Nancy Drew remains a classic, though one i don't come back to often)

The Odyssey, transl Emily Wilson, which I don't think I have to sell the merits of to you lmao. My first brush with the classics as a teenager, and still my favourite! It's nice to come back to something I love and know how beloved it's been for so long.

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. I read. A Lot. of Arthuriana themed YA as a teen, but this one was my Mum's favourite and subsequently became mine. I think I can still recite the prophecy from heart. I would die for Bran.

10. What is your favourite genre read to recommend to someone who isn't a reader of that genre?

I don't have a lot of these, I usually start with the issue and work back! I'll either look for a 'genre straddler' or a 'it's genre x but written like a genre y' vibes based approach. The Stephanie Plum/Numbers series by Janet Evanovich used to be my favourite 'thrillers that don't read like thrillers' to recommend, but I haven't revisited them in a Long while! If anything on this list will have aged poorly it'll be these, but a lot of the focus is on the will they/won't they dual romance (second chance and mystery badass leading men), and they're written like romcoms. The Martian by Andy Weir is a great intro sci fi as well, a shockingly easy read despite a lot of the concepts it's working with.

11. What is something you've recently reread?

...This is going to drive me up the wall because I don't log rereads on Goodreads OR my spreadsheet, and I KNOW I reread something recently argh.

I'm pretty sure it was A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher, which I yelled about last time I did one of these memes. Rec stands, vultures, bugs, witches, mid century occult bullshit, chefs kiss. I'm also ABOUT to reread some stuff for my one uni class: My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, who's main character and author I would like to argue with, and Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, which I Love. It's an adaptation of Antigone set in the context 2010s British antiterrorism crackdowns and relations with Pakistan. Very compelling, Shamsie hit my buy list after reading that and I'm loving her other stuff as well.

[mogseltof]

"The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms."

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

[mogseltof]

"José Arcadio Buendia insisted on rejecting rhetorical tricks and the transmutation of chocolate, and he demanded the daguerreotype of God as the only proof."

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

[mogseltof]

did a reading yesterday and I pulled three reverse cups, five major arcana and a pair of sixes. Just from that, not even getting into specifics, I was, as the kids say, shooketh

[mogseltof]

there are three reasons i want to finish the name of the wind and they are 

1 it’s quite good and i wanna know how it ends so i can get in on book two

2 it’s my sisters copy and i’d like to return it to her instead of ending up with it sitting on my desk for eighteen months like the things we lend each other usually do

3 i have a huge stack of isabel allende novels i am fucking DYING to rub my grubby little eyeballs all over already

[mogseltof]

tfw you click on a fanfic authors profile bc you remember them being hysterical and you loved all their fics and suddenly it’s revealed thy’re horrifically homophobic D: D: D:

[mogseltof]

wrote a fic

starscream/wheeljack, past starscream/megatron, au where they’re human lesbians bc i keep reading fics with that premise and now it won’t leave me alone, inspired by a Dessa song about moving on from relationships and appropriately angsty as a result. enjoy!

[read-me-loud-and-queer]

alright, i got tagged by @medweds (<3) and i live to overshare so behold another tag game

rules: answer every question, add one of your own and tag one person per question christ lord there’s over 40 questions just tag whoever u want

i’m tagging: @ozenhaqadosh @officialqueer @mogseltof @never-mind-the-sex-pistols @thepunksink @fanaticalnerdgirl @pedigreepossum @precipitating-potato @tinyhispanic oh my god there’s so many questions i regret all of this

i’m gonna tag:

1. coke or pepsi: pepsi

2. disney or dreamworks: both

3. coffee or tea: not really a fan of either, but i’m trying to drink more tea

4. books or movies: i enjoy both, but lately i haven’t had the energy for either :’(

5. windows or mac: windows. fuck apple

6. dc or marvel: marvel fan from the start

7. x-box or playstation: pc (honestly nostalgia-wise i prefer playstation) 8. dragon age or mass effect: haven’t played either, but i’ve been wanting to play da

9. night owl or early riser: night owl

10. cards or chess: cards.

11. chocolate or vanilla: chocolate

12. vans or converse: whichever’s on sale tbh, but i do prefer my flimsyass glorified socks converse

13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar: i don’t know what this means. :c

14. fluff or angst: see, i love fluff, i tell myself that i crave the fluff, yet at 2am i’m on ao3 opening yet another ‘jay’s last thoughts as he’s dying’ fic to go with the ‘lone survivor chris’ fic that i already have open

15. beach or forest: !!! both! 16. dogs or cats: i love cats i love every kind of cat...

17. clear skies or rain: doesn’t matter so long as there’s no wind

18. cooking or eating out: i’m always down for either

19. spicy food or mild food: i tell myself i love jalapeno but then i remember i’m white and everything hurts

20. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: halloween is my favorite holiday, has been for over a decade now

21. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: i’m already always a little too cold and it’s hellish

22. if you could have any superpower, what would it be?: time manipulation

23. animation or live action: animation!

24. paragon or renegade: i don’t know what this is referring to

25. baths or showers: shower

26. team cap or team ironman: *huffs* IF we’re talking the actual civil war storyline, i’m anti-registration, in respect to mcu civil war i’m more standing on the sidelines, face in my hands because they’re all... so clueless..

27: fantasy or sci-fi: i love them both

28. do you have three or four favorite quotes, if so what are they:

- “searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.”

- “the opposite of war isn’t peace - it’s creation.”

- “you understand reality while everyone else is running around confused and angry and upset because they think reality is something happening to them rather than something they are making every moment with every thought.”

29. netflix or youtube: youtube.

30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: i haven’t read the later series, but my man rick has never let me down and pj continues to be good years later

31. when do you feel accomplished: sometimes i make people laugh and that is the best feeling

32. star wars or star trek: i enjoy both, but at this point i’ve seen more star wars

33. paperback or hardback: whichever’s used and cheap

34. horror or rom-com: always a slut for horror

35: Tv shows or movies: tv shows

36. spotify or pandora: spotify for familiar music, pandora for finding new stuff

37. zootopia or inside out: zootopia was so cute. so, so cute. and so good. 38. favorite book: please don’t make me pick 39. favourite flower: lilacs 40. what field of study are you in (or aspire to be in): this 41. song lyric you really love?: “Burning bridges is a form of suicide I saw the fires as the ghost of my life Passed me by and there is nowhere you can hide From the lessons or the lies that bind them”

42. What’s your MBTI type?: enfp/infp

43. What Hogwarts house are you?: ravenclaw

44. Cake or pie: pie tbh

45: write with pen or pencil: pencil. unless i have a pilot g2

46: pancakes or waffles?: waffles

[mogseltof]

"Like all those who love life, they had felt they were immortal."

- Of Love and Shadows, Isabel Allende