#read may 2022

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Although I have loved and enjoyed all of TJR's books, I think Carrie Soto Is Back may be her best yet. My particular favorite. Call it her GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), if you will.

As a former athlete myself with a dad-coach who was always in my corner even when he was he running me ragged with drills, goals, strategy, and pep talks, there was something about this book, and Carrie herself, that resonated with me deeply.

We--well, we understood each other. We CONNECTED.

Carrie's comeback story felt familiar to me, almost personal in a way. Despite never having swung a tennis racket in my life, let alone never having played in a high-stakes professional match to uphold a Grand Slam record, either, I could still relate to all the time, effort, and drive Carrie poured into her sport. Into becoming - and remaining - the greatest player tennis has ever seen.

I could understand why she was considered a force. A battle axe. A bitch. (While men with her same focus and attitude were looked on favorably.) I could see why she not only wanted, but needed, to win. I also know what it means to chase after medals and titles and accomplishments that, if you won them, would leave the whole world cheering your name forever. Just like I know the gaping pit of despair that waits for you if you believe you'll fall short of your goals.

(I was an athlete once too, after all. I had similar dreams, I faced similar obstacles to success.)

So although you don't need to have a sports background/interest to be enthralled by this story and its characters, that aspect, that competitive "gotta be #1" ambiance and energy, added something extra for me. It made it easier to be submerged in the narrative, to be consumed by it. I could slip back and forth between engagement and reverie--reading, remembering, re-living.

Suffice it to say that I lost no time at all before I was swept up in Carrie's ambition and ruthlessness to succeed at almost any cost, with the odds against her notwithstanding.

She was such a bold and unapologetic character. Stubborn, too. I couldn't help but root for her to reclaim her title from upstart, Nicki Chan.

There's a hardness about her though, I won't lie. There's a toughness that takes time and patience to penetrate. Forged like she is from the fires of drive and determination, she is not the type of personality to bend or swerve with delicacy, not even with the people she loves, but I think therein lies her true beauty: She's tireless. She's tenacious. She's a force to be reckoned with that is made of the solidest stuff there is, and because of that, you'll never be able to forget who she is.

The name Carrie Soto will forever tumble from people's lips in awe, in respect. It will go down in infamy.

She is a character who is impossible to forget.

That said, what I loved most about this book was how I could slip on competitiveness like a second skin and live in it. I was able to see the tennis world through Carrie's eyes, yes, but I also could peer backward through my own mind's eye to re-visit some of my own sports-related experiences.

There were so many times while reading when I could taste the sweat, feel the twinge of Carrie's tired, burning muscles. Moments when I could smell the grass and clay beneath her feet as she trounced another opponent to dust, the thunder-roar of the crowd like that of a drug that adrenalizes the heart to keep an ailing yet agile body moving. There were times of triumph and failure. There was frustration, felicitation, stagnation--all of it culminating in a flurry of conflicted emotion that grew more intense with every turn of the page and begged readers, as well as Carrie herself, to ask, "Is there more to life than winning? Is being the best the only thing that matters?" There were even a few occasions when a father-daughter stratagem felt like it'd been ripped out of my own life's playbook.

What else is there to say except I was held hostage by Carrie's comeback? I was riveted, ensnared. I disappeared into the game, the stakes, the outcome, as if I were there. I let the characters tie me into knots every step along the way: striving with them, playing harder against them. I won. I lost. I felt hope swell in my chest as well as deflate. In short, I fell headlong into the nail-biting, ball-bouncing, heart-rate-spiking suspense of it all.

Chapter after chapter, I would close my eyes and sink down deep into old memories, into old feelings that arose while I competed in my own youth, back when I was still kicking up dirt, two French braids flapping against the white numbers on the back of my shirt, and it was like I was right there playing alongside Carrie for all the marbles--in the moment as well as in a memory.

It's rare to find a book that lets you live in it twice. But in this one I did: once as Carrie Soto, the other as myself. It was as vicarious a read as a reading experience can be. So for that, top marks all around!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

5/5 stars

**Follow me on Goodreads

[stil-lindigo]

the machine.

a comic about being a 'creator' online.

creative notes:

[dolona]

"Marcus gazed at Edith "Women are goddesses; men are their servants" Did women want men to be their servants, or did they simply want loving husbands? Wasn't it better to find someone to share things with: someone who looked at the world in a similar way and had the same goals. "

- The Light After the War by Anita Abriel

[louismygf]

some louis tomlinsons i never posted ^_^

[llamahearted]

couldn't rest until I saw the gang reacting to the second Stampede trailer

[evodevo-geekmonkey]

I really love how in Beyond the Shattered Sea, they feed Kit and Willow’s family stories off each other.

Like, it’s very subtle and I may be way off base, but when they’re talking in the little cabin and Kit is telling him about how her dad was in the light and you can just see the pain she’s in without him there and not knowing what happened to him and probably believing he’s dead, Willow’s long silence is him thinking about Mims and seeing a daughter missing her dad like crazy. And that’s just like his kid. And he wants to get back to his kid so badly because she’s just like Kit and she needs him.

Then later Kit finds Willow missing Mims and she sees how much pain he’s in over that and all she can see is a dad who went on this quest because it was the right thing to do (for Elora no less) but all he wants is his kid but he’s still there because it’s the right thing to do but it’s really messing him up and something finally clicks for her.

[jestroer]

Hello gay people in my puter! Today is a nice day as it is Birthday of my beloved mutual @zombiiehorse​​! As a present I made a fanart of their hit piece of Fan Fiction feathers almost feel like fur which is. SOOOOOO GREAT

What you guys should do is to go and read it and leave a kudos and a nice comment and bookmark! Its sooooooooooooo good guys i promise its an absolute banger piece of art boys go go go

Also I didnt plan on it but this thing does fit day 2 of @/ink-ghoul’s hermittober theme Soulmates as Martyn did say that him and Grian are soulmates destined to destroy each other so i will count it as well! :)

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

~ books read in 2023 ~

#21: The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones

The farmer had four ordinary children, which was why the magic of the fifth came as a surprise.

Rating: 5/5

[chilapis]

I think every moment is eternal in its own right and we hold no authority to deny it that status. Even if it is a forever that will escape our memories, it’ll still exist as a forever in the history of time. In the memories of no-one but the Earth itself. In the records kept and made by no-one, where everything is stored for all time to come. No love is lost and no existence truly unacknowledged.

[disastergenius]

2024: the first year i'm going to actually try to do Dracula Daily

[narvaldetierra]

Blindspot Rewatch 2022 ~ S03E14 ~

The tattoo club

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

Inventive, colorful, and engrossing, Hester is what I would categorize as speculative historical fiction. I say that because of the way it reimagines history and literature we think we know by giving it a pulse, by creating a flesh-and-blood personhood with a doomed but sweeping love affair at the center that becomes the real life inspiration for The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In summary, this is a tale where readers are plopped directly into a sensuous, layered world of "what if."

What if Hawthorne had a muse? Could his tragic heroine, Hester Prynne, have been based on someone real? Someone he once knew? If the character was inspired by a woman he knew, then who was she? Where was she from? When and how did they meet? What kind of person would she turn out to be?

Perhaps she had a harrowing, fascinating story. Perhaps she was a married seamstress from Scotland named Isobel Gamble, an immigrant who was trying to make it in the New World in Salem, Massachusetts in the early 19th century. Perhaps she was haunted by the past but was trying to overcome it. And perhaps, in addition to being a gifted needleworker, she fell in love with a lanky dark-haired storyteller, warded against the harsh prejudices of the day, and guarded the dangerous secret of being able to see color in the sounds and letters other people spoke.

All said and done, this book is a vivid and lyrical reimagining of the "real" Hester Prynne that can't help but enchant its readers. It's a great selection for historical fiction fans, but especially for those who enjoy Nathaniel Hawthorne.

If you're anything like me, it will breathe new life into his work for you. And don't worry. I promise you'll leave these pages feeling guilt-free about it.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

4/5 stars

**Follow me on Goodreads

[deercharles]

The quiet kid whose only joy in the party is the food (Ft Carlos' hands)

[biscuitscheesebiscuits]

Ah, yes, time for the annual reread of Red, White, & Royal Blue

[megidoreyn]

Hihi! For the ask meme, perhaps 4, 8 and 14?

Hey there! Aw, thank you for the questions! It's super rare to get asks like these, so it really made my day! 😇🙏

⭐️4. What defines your artistic style?

That's a good question!🤔 (Especially since I don't know how others might perceive my art!) Due to my own visual agnosia as well, it skews my perception of my own works... So I actually end up disliking the grand majority of the things I create tbh🤣 It's hard for me to become cognizant of any strengths due to the weaknesses being highlighted (in my skewed POV) sometimes! But from the comments I have kindly received before, I would say that my art is defined by: clean/polished lineart, round/"squishy" chibis, warm colors, and "an aura of softness/tenderness"! Truthfully, I would love to be known for having a well-rounded and versatile style! As in: switching from a dynamic + appealing full-body style to a charming chibi style with precision and confidence!💪 And in general: I'd like to be known for drawing handsome faces on full-body characters instead of only having a "cute" style tbh LOL

⭐️8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?

Oh man…For a self-critic, this is a tough yet great question too!!😂--There's usually elements of a picture I enjoy working on VS how the overall picture eventually turns out! But looking back at everything I've posted publicly so far on twitter from 2022-2023…I think it'd have to be these! ↓

And a special shout out to this Walter-Lucifer pseudo-fiend character turnaround sheet that started off as a "haha just messing around :^)" sketch but then quickly turned serious 2 days later LOL. I did like incorporating SMT4 Lucifer's Phase 2 wings on him, since the in-game design includes this gradient on the wings too. 😇🙏

⭐️14.What do you like drawing the most?

As a surprise to no one, my favorite thing to draw would be WalterJonathan---both the pairing and the individual characters LOL. There's actually a personal reason for this, but maybe that'll be a story for another time! Whether or not the majority of these (finished/ polished) sketches will ever see the light of day is also to be determined in the future...😂 Despite these canon Satan Husbands going through the many unspeakable horrors they suffer within base SMT4 + SMT4 Apoc's canon (and even the duology of the SMT4 manga's canon too!), I'll always prefer to draw them being sweet with each other...🥺 To at least give them a single soft moment of reprieve that they deserve...!😭🙏

↑ I also enjoy drawing the details of the SMT4 samurai coat/uniform! As well as other things and details like: 💙the SMT protags' COMPs + SMT4 Gauntlet 💙Clothing folds 💙Side profiles 💙Backside angles 💙Painting hair 💙Drawing hands 💙Dynamic chibis + dynamic body language in general (that convey a character's personality)

…and probably some more things I'm forgetting LOL.

💙↑ edit: I forgot how much I like sketching out Pokemon as quick warm-ups + other critters like the MOTHER/Earthbound Mr.Saturns too! It's good practice in understanding different shapes.

Again, thank you so much for the questions!🙏 It was fun to answer these!

⭐️⭐️⭐️It's still 12/31 here in my neck of the woods, so I wish you and everyone reading this a Happy New Year as well!

[brian-in-finance]

Twitter 📚 Event Info 🎟️ Tickets

Trespasses

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment - Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married - Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.

Goodreads

Remember when we learned we may hear an accent much like Ma’s on 24 May when Caitríona reads from Trespasses? ☘️