#the epic highs and lows of rural living

[goodlucktai]

nothing makes you feel like a kid again like calling your mom in tears because your cat is sick 🫠

[bobtheacorn]

Power was out for FOURTEEN HOURS!!! But it’s back, bitches!!

[wordwarriors]

World Building

I'm a little late with the summary, but here it is. Thanks to everyone who attended and see you all again next month!

Where does your story take place?

Real-world v created world: You can use the world that we live in as it is. You can use the world that we live in with some tweaks. You can use alternate timelines/universes or create an entirely fictional world.

Alternate timelines Ex: modern day real world but WW I never happened.

High v low fantasy:

High fantasy refers to epic fantasy which is set in an alternate world. It typically includes lots of magical elements, fantastical creatures, and unusual technology. Whereas low fantasy is when magical creatures and elements intrude upon the regular world.

Things to consider/include:

Magic system

Geography

Political systems

Religion

Culture

Is there a class system? What does that look like?

Being grounded in the real world doesn’t save you from having to world-build.

What continent, country, city? Urban or rural? Mountains? Beach? A country can be set in the real world but it’s a fictional country. A city can be fictional. It can be based on NYC for example but still be fictional. Change the name and whatever else you need to.

You can blend real and imagined. Ex: Used the name of a real restaurant but placed it in a different town, etc.

Example: I used real roads but fake places. Anyone local will recognize the intersection but I put a fictional forest where a horse pasture actually sits.

You can create fictional shops, buildings, etc in NYC. NYC is real but the places aren’t.

Example: I had to create a building with a helipad in a story once b/c there are no helipads in that area, but I needed one for my story to work so I made it up. Could have used an actual one but my characters would have had to get past the FBI barricade, so it was easier to make up a building that was inside the perimeter.

Note:

If using magic, one must first establish how it normally works before showing it malfunctioning. Same if the character is supposed to be super strong or smart or something, establish that first so the reader understands what is normal in this world before the thing goes wrong.

Establishing Scenes: tell us all of the above. But do it in a way that shows not tells.

Also, make sure it matters. You need rich world-building but the reader doesn’t care what your character's first car was unless that information tells us something important about the character that we need to know, like he worked three summers in a row to earn the money because his parents were poor. Or because they were rich but stingy. Or because they were rich but wanted him to learn to earn things rather than have things handed to him. (if this is important to set a tone for his character or personality, ie, learned the value of hard work or this is why he resents his parents or this is why he is so driven to succeed in his career so he never goes hungry again!

Fabulous establishing world-building scene courtesy of @karahalloway:

The horse responds with a sour-faced snort, stepping quickly past the moss-covered waypost — a brazen reminder of this land's heathen roots. Because despite the House of Rys' conversion to Christianity almost a millennia ago, in the far-flung reaches of the kingdom — where the roads ran out, and the name of the King is just that... a name — the tenet of the old ways is more than just a memory. It is a living, breathing ethos. Suffused into the very heart of this harsh, rugged, yet beautiful land. Where portents, spells, and otherworldly creatures exist in the same breath as Christ, the Eucharist, and Judgement Day, and the very air crackles with mysticism and superstition. Which is partly what drew me here — to the edge of the proverbial map, where the laws of Cordonia fray into irrelevance in the face of the jagged peaks of the snow-capped mountains, and your fortune is what you craft it to be.

This sets the stage with so many rich details: geography, history, socio-political, religious background, his place in this world,etc.

Please, if I've missed anything, feel free to mention it in the comments and I'll add it!

Also, check out these articles:

World Building

February Event:

Live Discussion on character building on Friday, February 23rd, 2024 12:00 p.m. CST

Word Warriors:

@karahalloway @aussiegurl1234 @harleybeaumont @alj4890 @peonierose @petiteboheme @twinkleallnight @lizzybeth1986 @noesapphic @thedistantshoresproject

@ryns-ramblings @tate-lin @nestledonthaveone

@aallotarenunelma @kristinamae093 @coffeeheartaddict2 @memorias-depresivas

@jerzwriter

[skullhaver]

B A S I C S :

Full Name: Atlas "Loam" Angra

Pronouns: They/them

Gender: Nonbinary; "gender is not a high priority to me" subtype

Sexuality: Bisexual

D E T A I L S :

Birthplace: The village of Angra in the marshy region of Pantalpan

Age: 28

Species: Half-orc, half-human

Job(s): Ranger. For several years, Loam was a wayfinder working with a small company of adventurers that escorted travellers between the big city of Akara and various towns and villages in Pantalpan. Twice, they even made the transit through the southern jungles to glimpse the isolated city of Cere! They called themselves Expeditious Expeditions.

Family: Loam comes from a happy, blended family. Their mom (Naghat 55F) is an orc and their dad (Andreas 50M) is a human. Naghat's former partner passed away; from her previous relationship Loam has two full-orc half-siblings (Makhel 35F and Ushat 33NB). They also have a half-human full-sibling (Orion 30M).

Alignment: Chaotic good

Phobias: Slight fear of heights

Guilty Pleasures: Generally speaking, Loam doesn't feel guilty about the things that they enjoy, but they can get a little shy about their sheer enthusiasm for ice cream. It's a big city treat that's a bit hard to come by in their more rural home region.

Hobbies: Loam likes to keep moving and likes friendly competitions, so they can easily be recruited into trying any sport. This could be as casual and low-impact as kicking around a hacky sack or as full-contact as fantasy rugby, which I imagine they'd adore. They're also a huge fan of the traditional orc art form of scripted, theatrical wrestling (see: professional wrestling) which is not widely enjoyed outside of their home region. They're always keen to introduce new people to its epic highs and lows.

T H I S - O R - T H A T :

introvert / extrovert

organized / disorganized

close-minded / open-minded

calm / anxious / restless

disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

patient / impatient

outspoken / reserved / in-between

leader / follower / flexible

empathetic / unempathetic

optimistic / pessimistic / realistic

traditional / modern / in-between

hard-working / lazy / depends on the task

O T H E R :

Animal: Giant anteater, for their animal companion Fernanda! 

Color: Rich red soil

Song: Feelin' Good as sung by the legendary Nina Simone. Nina's voice is something like how I imagine Loam's: low, mellow and warm, with moments of rough gravel.

Number: 6, for the members of their bio-family and the members of Expeditious Expeditions.

Day or Night: Day

Plant: Jenipapo, a gorgeous tree that grows in clay soils in the tropical flooded forest where Loam grew up. The small yellow fruits are versatile: unripe, they can be used as pigment for paint, tattoos and for insect repellent. When ripe, they have a pear-like flavor and are often made into preserves (or ice cream👀).

Smell: Dirt, baybee. All manner of musky, earthy smells.

Gemstone: Loam is broadly opposed to mineral extraction, so if you made them pick a "gemstone" they'd probably say freshwater pearls.

Season: Dry season (has never lived in a four-season climate).

Place: Breaking camp on a fair-weather morning in the serrado. That fluttery, excited feeling of a journey ahead.

Food: High-protein diet with a lot of meat and beans.

Drink: Honestly water?? Loam has big "person who always has a water bottle on them" vibes. But also, growing up in a predominantly orc village, they do go hard on the alcohol when it's time to party. Sugarcane hard liquors like rum and cachaça would be their go-tos.

Astrological Sign: Sagittarius vibes

Element: Earth

[suispiria]

responding off anon bc fuck it lol (I'm the anon from the Pacific Northwest, feel free to message if that's easier)--youre absolutely right, every time I see a seal it moves me close to tears. when I am caught up being an extremely sad person in my 20s, looking at a huge tree or a vast sea has never made it worse. Are there no seals or large bodies of water where you live ? What is the nature like there? I am doing my absolute best to avoid supporting the dollar by making as few dollars as possible each month (I am extremely good at this). If you ever make it here to rural bumfuck nowhere California I will gladly make you lunch! I haven't even started the new season of industry yet but I'm praying that yasmin and harper finally form the serious financial crime firm they're destined to head, and most importantly love and respect one another ... im begging

Hey!!! What a reveal!! I live right at the base of a mountain but it’s also a very urbanized area so the animals that pop out are mostly birds and squirrels and butterflies. the tiny black w white belly birds fly around en masse when rain is coming and I love watching them dive to drink from the apartment complex’s pool but it makes me sooo anxious too like they should not be drinking chlorine!!! mid 20 degrees celsius but if you go 16k south the heat ramps up so yk epic highs and lows. there’s small waterfalls and a giant jesus statue some dude built w government money. if you drive 2hrs you’ll see moorland if you drive 5hrs in a different direction you’ll see monkeys and if you drive 10 hours in a different direction you’ll see the sea! also re industry s3 is already so bonkers like I was frozen in terror the entire episode. just everyone at their absolute worst in such a delicious way. oh I forgot there’s mountain lions and one was spotted by tourists swimming in a reservoir a couple of years ago

What a guy

[zenaidamacrouras1]

A new graphic for a new chapter of Backhoe - this chapter is very long and discusses funerals, just FYI if that's a thing you're trying to avoid. I wrote much of it while sitting at the zoo crying, because I don't know, it seemed like a normal thing to do at the time.

Quick geography note to explain the graphic: Not all of Appalachia is this densely textured, but above is a mocked up example of more or less how I picture the land where this action is taking place. Its just a random google maps screenshot, no where in particular. The hills aren't super high, but they are steep. People typically live along the creeks that run between the hills, in long narrow communities. In the area pictured, you would have houses on one side of the creek without enough space for a house on the other side of the creek.

The long narrow valleys between mountains are called "hollers" which is a regional pronunciation of "hollow." Because the roads typically follow the creeks at the bottom of the holler, unless there is tunnel through the mountain, you can live fairly close to something as the crow flies, but have to drive ten minutes up one holler and down the other to get there by car. Sam and Bucky would have run back and forth over the mountain to play as kids, probably on an old logging road, and they would have hiked up to the pipeline site from their house to pick peaches, even though there are no paved roads that lead to that site. Because of the steepness of the terrain, it's not uncommon for a fairly low income family to own a lot of acres of forest, because the land has very little real estate value. (Lots of families will sell off land or lease land to timber, coal and natural gas companies for extra income).

A last thing worth noting is that it's fairly typical for people to bury their relatives at the family homeplace, so the family cemetery where Bucky's parents, grandparents, etc are buried is probably near the house, though I don't know if it will come up in the story, it's just one of those ways that Appalachian culture is rooted in the land to this day.

Oh, I thought I was out of things to say, but to add that there are rural Black Appalachians, sometimes called Affrilachian in recent history, and they are often invisibilized from our history. Black folks are a very important part of Appalachian history, notable Black Appalachians include scholar bell hooks, scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., Katherine Johnson who was featured in the movie Hidden Figures, all grew up in narrow hollers like these. Let's not forget John Henry, of the very well know folk song about the epic battle of man vs. machine and the grief of laborers who lose their job to technology, was a Black man. The labor movement in WV coal mines was a foundation for the labor movement across the US and many Black Appalachian labor leaders fought and died for the labor rights we enjoy today. Lastly, the Highlander Center where Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks trained was founded by Black (and white) Appalachians in east Tennessee.

LOL remember when I said that was a quick geography note?!?

[eileennatural]

the epic highs (beautiful nature and clean air) and lows (nowhere to buy a nice outfit) of living in rural america

[vaexpeditionscostarica]

Planning Your Costa Rican Vacation: Factors to Consider When Deciding When to Visit

Are you excited about your upcoming Costa Rica tropical getaway? If yes, then you must need some valuable Costa Rica travel information to make your vacation worthwhile. Read the post and find out more about Costa Rica. 

Introducing Costa Rica –

Costa Rica is magical, adventurous, progressive, and spectacularly natural. It seems to have it figured out all. With the “Peace with Nature”, the country is committed to sustainable tourism and making it carbon neutral. The tropical getaway welcomes all walks of life from everywhere around the world wholeheartedly. 

Whether you are an explorer, a nature enthusiast or you are into adventure sports or just want to relax, the Costa Rica getaway will get your travel needs covered. The country may seem small in size, but it’s booming with exciting activities and has something new around every corner. 

The natives call themselves “Ticos” and speak Spanish officially, but English is spoken in most places throughout the country. The Ticos are known as the friendliest people throughout Latin America and live by the saying “Pura Vida” – “Pure Life”. 

Costa Rica has no military and focuses on education, health care, economy, renewable energy, and preserving its natural wonders. Costa Rica is famed for its extraordinary biodiversity and its wildlife, natural sightseeing attractions, and popularity for conservation. The country’s twelve ecosystems contain one of the richest concentrations of flora and fauna on the planet. 

Boasting a temperate climate, Costa Rica makes it easy to get out and enjoy the scenic natural wonders throughout the year. It’s easy to see why the country is known as the jewel of Latin America. However, the dream destination has epic surf spots, misty cloud forests, wilderness, and wildlife to take your breath away. Even if it’s smaller in size, you can be able to enjoy a wide variety of activities within a short trip. Whether you need travel information on Costa Rica’s weather or want to know when to get away from the crowds, find out the best time to visit this amazing country. 

High Season – from December to April 

The High Season is also known as the dry season, but the country experiences some rain. This time is perfect for outdoor adventures. The beach towns welcome domestic tourists on weekends. If you are visiting Costa Rica during this time, you should book your hotel accommodations ahead of time as they will remain busy and some places will enforce minimum stays. 

Shoulder Season – from May to July 

This time is perfect for vacationers on a budget. The season is when the rain picks up and the stream of vacationers starts tapering off. Fortunately, for vacationers on a budget, many accommodations are available at lower prices. But exploration can be a bit difficult during this time because of muddy roads and rising rivers as well as challenging off-the-beaten travel tracks. 

Low Season – from August to November 

This season is the best time for surfers. This is the time when Costa Rica receives the highest rainfall. But the Pacific swells bring in the best conditions for surfing. Due to river crossings, the roads in rural areas can be impassable. The hotel accommodation and vacation rental prices can reduce significantly, but you should check before making reservations as some places remain closed entirely. 

Bottom Line –

Do you need more Costa Rica travel-related information? If yes, then you should get in touch with VA Expeditions as soon as possible at 1 – (888) 803 8004.

[shortpplfedup]

BEST OF BL 2021 CATEGORY: FAVOURITE SHOWS

2021 was a rough year for BL because of this ferkakta pandemic, but we still got some high quality work out of Thailand and Taiwan in particular. In the case of Thailand, I'd say this was their most consistently high-quality year yet, with 4 series in my personal top 5.

BEST OF THE BEST

5. A Tale of Thousand Stars (GMMTV) | Dir. Backaof Noppharnach Chaiwimol | Main Cast: Earth Pirapat Watthanasetsiri, Mix Sahaphap Wongratch

ATOTS was the first thing this year to make me sit up and take notice. A contemplative slow burn drama about grief, guilt and growing up, this story set in the mountains of rural northern Thailand gave us a romance for the ages between Phupha, a gruff forest ranger and Tian, a soft city kid looking to change his life. Earth shows us he's not just a pretty face after a few years of toiling in the mines of the wrong projects, and Mix is a revelation.

4. Lovely Writer (Dee Hup House/WeTV) | Dir. Tee Bundit Sintanaparadee | Main Cast: Kao Noppakao Dechaphatthanakun, Up Poompat Iam-samang

A firm yet gentle calling out of the Thai BL industry and the audience that supports it, Lovely Writer took the fandom by the shoulders, looked it right in the eye and said 'I love you, but you can do better than this'. This was a great meta story that focused on themes of consent and privacy, and reminded us that there are real people with real lives behind the characters we love to watch. Fantastic acting by Up as Gene, the titular writer, and a solid performance from Kao as Nubsib, the boy who's been in love with him since they were children.

3. We Best Love: No. 1 For You (Result Entertainment/WeTV) | Dir. Ray Jiang | Main Cast: Sam Lin, YU

Yes, Fighting Mr. 2nd had one of the greatest scenes I've seen in television drama, but in the end No. 1 For You gave me the better overall story. Taiwanese BL is always hit or miss for me (one day I'll write that ranking of the HIStory franchise), but Sam and Yu are magic as Shi De and Shu Yi. A rivals-to-lovers that is actually a long-term pining story is my particular kind of jam, and this was executed beautifully.

2. Bad Buddy (GMMTV) | Dir. Backaof Noppharnach Chaiwimol | Main Cast: Ohm Pawat Chittsawangdee, Nanon Korapat Kirdpan

I know it's not even halfway through yet and I don't care. This fake-enemies-real-friends-eventually-lovers Romeo and Juliet epic love story disguised as a sitcom is closing out 2021 with a bang. Ohm and Nanon are giving the performances of a lifetime as Pat and Pran, and every part of this show is firing on all cylinders from the writing to the direction to the music.

1. I Promised You The Moon (Nadao Bangkok/LINE TV) | Dir. Meen Tossaphon Riantong | Main Cast: Billkin Putthipong Assaratanakul, PP Krit Amnuaydechkorn

It may be controversial, but for me there's no competition: this is the best BL aired in 2021. A difficult story that showed the sometimes ugly guts of a long-term relationship between two people who fell in love in high school, IPYTM took us through the highest highs and the lowest lows and made us take a long, hard look at our romantic notions of what real love looks like. Where its companion piece I Told Sunset About You leaned hard into the drama of teenage love and queer coming of age with a nostalgic bent, IPYTM said 'here's what would most likely come after that'. It's hard, but ultimately rewarding, and when Teh and Oh Aew stroll off into the sunset it feels like hope, and what is love if not hope? Anchored by seriously career-rocketing performances by Billkin and PP, it's worth the pain.

HONOURABLE MENTION

Young Royals (Nexiko AB/Netflix) | Dir. Rojda Sekersöz | Main Cast: Edvin Ryding, Omar Rudberg

The surprise of the summer, coming literally out of nowhere was Sweden's Young Royals, a pop art masterpiece about the lives and loves of a literal prince and all the people surrounding him at an elite boarding school. As I said before about this show: a story about loners, outsiders and misfits navigating a high-pressure environment will always have my attention. And Edvin and Omar give fantastic performances as Wille and Simon, with a great supporting cast surrounding them as well.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Black Swan bookgasm review #2: Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun (1917)

It is not uncommon for a writer to become more known for his reputation than actual work. Not that the work isn’t of quality, just that it is easier for the public to fixate on their extreme political beliefs or their tragic life than for the very work that writer should be known. Sylvia Plath is a perfect example, since many non-readers of poetry are aware of her taking her own life by sticking her head in an oven, yet are unfamiliar with her great poetry - the very thing for which she is deservedly celebrated. Such is the same fate of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun who was well known in his day, for he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920 after having published Growth of the Soil in 1917. 

In the same way the French have come to wrestle with acknowledging the literary greatness Louis Ferdinand Celine’s in tension with Celine’s Nazi sympathies during World War Two - so Norway has had its own ‘Celine’ problem with Knut Hamsun. Hamsun was well known for having been a Nazi sympathiser, and upon winning the Nobel, he apparently mailed his medal to one of Hitler’s closest associates, Joseph Goebbels. Then, after Hitler’s death, sources claim that he made some sorrowful eulogy, lamenting over the dictator’s life and death. As result, readers have adopted ambivalent feelings for the write - hating him for his politics yet loving him for his work. It should be also noted that Hamsun was in ‘mental decline’ after the war, so one can’t be sure what he would have believed in a healthier state of mind. But all this should be no matter, for what counts is the work, and Growth of the Soil is a work worth the read.

Hamsun had his admirers in the literary world including H.G. Wells who wrote, “I do not know how to express the admiration I feel for this wonderful book without seeming to be extravagant. I am not usually lavish with my praise, but indeed the book impresses me as among the very greatest novels I have ever read. It is wholly beautiful; it is saturated with wisdom and humour and tenderness."

Though the novel’s setting is in rural Norway, civilisation and its discontents are never far off. There are telegraphs and newspapers. People read. It's not as though this is a bucolic idyll in a sheltered Eden. It is a novel full of contrasts - most obviously between the remote, traditional agrarian life and the rapidly encroaching modern world. This is a very typical Norwegian subject—and typical for many small countries that have gone through such dramatic changes in just a generation or three. Nostalgia looms large.

The book tells the story of Isak and Inger, a married couple seeking to make a living off land that many believe to be a bad business move. We begin with Isak's first steps to create a home in the Norwegian wilds: 'The wilderness was inhabited and unrecognisable, a blessing had come upon it, life had arisen there from a long dream, human creatures lived there, children played about the houses. And the forest stretched away, big and kindly, right up to the blue heights.' He finds a woman, Inger, initially a simple soul, whom life gradually makes more complex. Inger is physically disfigured, but Isak is devoted to her, and the couple works to raise a family and make a life off their land, furrow by furrow, ax blow by ax blow, grows a life. He is the first, the trailblazer.

Gradually other settlers move in  - the idle, the industrious, the promiscuous - creating over decades a community of sorts. This includes the self-seeking Oline, “Never in life would she give in and never her match for turning and twisting heaven and earth to a medley of seeming kindness and malice, poison and senseless words.” One of the most enigmatic characters is Geissler, originally introduced as a decent official with whom Isak has dealings; he helps him at other times and made me wonder if Hamsun was equating him to some Viking deity, “I’m something, I'm the fog as it were, here and there, floating around, sometimes coming like rain on dry ground... There's my son, the lightening.” Years later, men come for the stringing of telegraph wires, the mining of ore in the adjacent mountains. Hamsun presents the incursion of man into nature, the imposition of will on a pristine Nordic first world.

There's a ‘worldly’ balance to the drama, yet Isak's simple virtues prevail - although he's constantly challenged by events, some beyond his control. There, to a degree, he's protected by his guardian angel of a friend, Geissler, a man as complex and mysterious as Isak is simple - but a man equally as virtuous.

Hamsun’s lovely prose pulls the reader into this pioneer ethic where you rejoice which the construction of a new hay loft and dismiss with contempt the inept farmer who sees to his own comfort before that of his stock. On more than one occasion our protagonists easily reject the offer of a few days’ work for ready cash to tend to the more pressing business of hay that needs cutting or timber that needs hauling, much to the puzzlement of the befuddled capitalists in search of local labour.

Many a Scandinavian will recognise Isak’s inscrutable personality, his lack of expression, his need for time to consider a change. And while Isak plods on in life, prospering by the virtues of hard, unceasing labour, those gathered around him demonstrate every other variation of humanity. There’s the flighty and the money-grabbing, the gossip and the fearful… all stand in contrast to his unerring purpose. By the end of the tale our lone walker has become a wealthy and well-respected margrave, patriarch of the richest farm at the heart of a growing agricultural community, whilst the more speculative endeavours of mining and commerce have boomed and busted around him.

The novel is full of biblical motifs from the Old Testament but it’s not a religious themed story. Rather the book is somewhat critical of city life and culture, especially when it threatens the preservation of land and family values. Hamsun’s far right roots poke through at times with his attitude toward the indigenous Lapps, “maggots”, and fairly non-stop jabs at the less than intellectual bent of the otherwise admirable peasantry.

Hamsun convincingly writes of a beautiful celebration of the rural life: “Nothing growing there? All things growing there; men and beasts and fruit of the soil. Isak sowing his corn. The evening sunlight falls on the corn that flashes out in an arc from his hand and falls like a dropping of gold to the ground. Here comes Sivert to the harrowing...Forest and field look on. All is majesty and power - a sequence and purpose of things.” One of the most fascinating aspects of the story was the prevalence of infanticide in Norwegian rural culture (the extent of which is truly shocking as much as it is known by Norwegians today).  

Although Hamsun is never preachy, the lure of the city is something that recurs throughout the tale, and although the city itself is not something shown to be evil, it is more or less, just like the rough parts of nature: indifferent to human happiness and fulfilment. And in some sense, the imposition it can cause is inescapable. Though when asked which will outlast, land will always live without the need for humans, for the city is nothing more than peopled wilderness, or: “the wilderness was peopled country now.” Without the people, the wilderness will always return.

Growth of the Soil becomes the growth of generations - the passage of time and the growth of land that makes its way within the creases of one’s face and hands. The people become their land, and by the end of the novel, Isak is balding, and what the narrator calls “a stump of a man.” He is older and not as physically strong as he once was, but he is not beaten. He continues sowing his grain. “Growth of the soil was something different, a thing to be procured at any cost; the only source, the origin of all.” Later this point is expounded further: “’Tis not all that are so, but you are so; needful of earth. ‘Tis you that maintain life. Generation to generation, breeding ever anew; and when you die, the new stock goes on. That’s the meaning of eternal life.”

In many ways, reading Growth of the Soil is like reading a preview for the later great writers, for one can see American writers like John Steinbeck and Thomas Wolfe have picked amid the themes in this work and made them their own. Yet there are moments when Growth of the Soil can feel a bit verbose for the impatient reader. Yet Hamsun is worth reading because there is no way around him. In the same way what Louis Ferdinand Celine did for French literature, Hamsun tore apart both the grammar and the lexicon of our Norwegian language, mixed high and low, dialect and aristocratic speech, and put all the pieces beautifully together again - in the totally new fashion we call contemporary Norwegian literature. As every Russian writer is rolled out of Gogol’s coat, every Norwegian one is an offspring of Hamsun, admittedly or otherwise.

One can wonder how the story of Norwegian peasants in the 19th century can be relevant today? But as we live so far removed from nature, are so surrounded by words and noise (mostly meaningless) and spend so much time worrying about our psyches, "Growth of the Soil" provides the exact antithesis of our world. It provides a perspective of what is really necessary for life and contentment and what needs to be let go of and what needs to be retained. It is a simple story of simple people, but it is far from shallow. The writing is beautiful and conveys so well the nuances of relationships and the impact of nature on humanity. In all, this is a a very Scandinavian work. Like an iconic Viking ship which combines beauty and simplicity with function, and is capable of navigating both rough seas and shallow rivers, Hamsun's writing has a biblical simplicity that narrates elegantly both life's small and meaningful events as well as its epic arc.

[goodlucktai]

how adulthood is going so far 🍳

[katjacksonbooks]

Preorder EVERY NEW YEAR

When Ezra Posner was eighteen, he met Candace Garret and fell in love. When Candace met Ezra, she instantly knew he was the boy for her. In the middle of their first year at college, Candace and Ezra share a clumsy kiss that should have been the beginning of an epic love affair, but it's not. Instead, it begins a nearly two-decade journey of never quite getting the timing right for love. For almost every New Year's Eve after, Candace and Ezra stumble into one another's arms, but can’t manage to hold onto each other for more than a single night. They live with the expectant giddiness of being able to spend New Year's Eve with the person they love, always hoping that next year will be their year. Until eventually, their annual trysts ruin even the friendship that held them together. As 2019 ends, Candace and Ezra are both running away from their broken hearts. They board a plane hoping to finally move on from their relationship, only to run right into each other's arms. Every New Year is a friends-to-lovers romance that takes nearly twenty years to bloom. It's also the first in the Love At Last series, where happily ever afters might take some time to mature, but they're always worth the wait.

Read on to see Candace and Ezra’s first NYE kiss!

DECEMBER 31, 2001

 Ezra Posner really didn’t want to be at this party. Actually, if he’d realized that his roommate, Miles Jefferson, would force him to leave the comfort of their dorm room and trek halfway across campus and then halfway up a hill, he would have pretended to be asleep until Miles left without him. He didn’t like parties. And he certainly didn’t like New Year’s Eve parties in the woods with the kids who’d decided – or had no other choice but – to stay on campus over winter break. They’d hiked into the hills surrounding their semi-rural campus to have their own New Year’s Eve celebration; all crushed together around a bonfire and listening to someone’s cheap boombox on low so they could keep an ear out for campus police.

The smell of smoke and cheap vodka made Ezra’s stomach turn. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to spend his New Year’s Eve and he was growing more annoyed that he’d let Miles drag him up here by the minute. But when he turned toward his best friend, he saw him sloshing that cheap swill into a red plastic cup with a frown. When he saw Ezra looking at him, he chuckled and then poured nearly half a bottle of orange juice into the cup “for taste,” meaning he needed to hide the burn of bottom barrel liquor. He held the cup out to Ezra and raised his own in toast.

“Cheers,” Miles said, smiling at Ezra with raised eyebrows. He’d given him the same smile when they’d met at summer orientation and then immediately suggested they become roommates.

Ezra raised his eyebrows at his friend, took the smallest sip he could manage and cringed. Miles didn’t notice. He was too distracted by Mei Barnes, the actual reason they’d come out tonight. She’d been the singular object of his attention all fall semester. Every week – sometimes every day – Miles had subjected Ezra to very detailed lectures about how Mei was literally the best, most perfect, beautiful girl on campus; maybe even in the world. Miles was the king of hyperbole. Ezra watched as Miles clutched his cup and began to inch through the crowd toward his crush and once again marveled at seeing his normally confident and sociable friend tur into a ball of nerves even though it was obvious that his attraction was completely reciprocal. Ezra stepped away from the glare and heat of the bonfire into the shadows and hoped – for Miles’s sake and the sake of his productivity – that those two would finally get together.

But just because he was rooting for their relationship, didn’t mean Ezra had to sacrifice his liver in celebration. He dumped his drink into a nearby bush, tossed his cup into the trash bag by the “bar” and went in search of a place to sit, hide, and wait for this all to end.

He settled onto a cold flat-topped rock and wished he’d worn a thicker sweater. He pressed the button on his digital watch to check the time. Eleven o’clock on the dot. He sighed. He didn’t think he could last another hour out here, but he didn’t want to leave Miles, especially not with how fast he and Mei were guzzling their drinks, smiling nervously at one another as if this was the first time they’d ever met. He wished again that he’d pretended to be asleep when Miles had burst into their dorm room, a towel around his waist, his shower caddy in one hand and excitedly told him to “get ready nerd, we’re going to a party.” Ezra also wished he hadn’t paid such close attention to the refrigerator magnet they all received at orientation about drinking responsibly and looking out for your friends, so he could have slipped down the hill without feeling guilty.

Either way, he wished that he was back in his dorm room working, because these were peak productive hours, and work was the entire reason he’d come back to campus immediately after Hanukkah. If he was going to submit his 3D scale model of his efficient train engine on time and with even half a chance of winning the Gilder prize, he needed to be giving it his full attention during every free moment of every day. He couldn’t afford to waste these few precious weeks before spring semester started observing someone else’s teenage romance and edgy underage drinking in the woods. He checked his watch again. One minute after eleven.

“Anybody sitting here?”

Ezra jumped at the voice. He looked up and couldn’t quite see who was standing in front of him with the bonfire behind them casting shadows over their face, but he didn’t need light to recognize her. He would have known that voice and silhouette anywhere.

Candace Garret was tall, almost as tall as him, with big curly hair that framed her head and gave her a few inches more height, wide hips and the brightest smile he’d ever seen. She was also way out of his league. He knew that. She knew that. Everyone knew that. Because Candace Garret was way out of everyone’s league.

“Hello,” she said again, leaning close and waving a hand in front of his face.

His vision adjusted as her lips spread into a small smile. Ezra was mesmerized by that flash of her bright white teeth and her even, flawless, deep dark brown skin that seemed to drink in every bit of light around them.

“Anybody in there?” she laughed.

He jumped from the rock and their heads collided.

“Ow,” she whined and rubbed at her forehead.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Ezra said, panicked, his own head beginning to throb. “Shit.”

His face heated and his eyes widened. What if he’d given Candace Garret a concussion? She was rubbing small circles on her forehead but still smiling at him. This only made the embarrassment he felt intensify. But ringed around that shame was the same awe he always felt in her presence.

“Calm down, Ezra. I won’t press charges. This time.” Her voice was calm but playful.

“I- You know my name?”

She laughed and shook her head.

Ezra loved Candace’s laugh. So much so that he’d catalogued and ranked his favorite moments of becoming absolutely mesmerized by it. In descending order, Ezra’s top five Candace Garret laughs were:

5. Once in the middle of their Chem II lab. He’d become distracted and accidentally ruined three days of an experiment.

4.  Once in the dining hall during the lunch rush. He’d heard her above the din and mistakenly dumped an entire ladle of ranch dressing on his grilled cheese sandwich rather than the salad he’d forgotten to make because he’d been too busy trying to get a glimpse of her across the room.

3. He’d been rushing from English to the engineering lab when he’d heard her distinctive twinkle wafting along the late fall breeze. His head whipped around as he searched for her on the Oval. When he’d found her, Candace was surrounded by half the basketball team and they were fighting each other for her attention. She was ignoring them and reading a comic book, laughing as she turned the pages.

2. That one time Miles had begged him to tag along to Mei and Candace’s dorm room. Ezra had spent the entire hour leaning awkwardly against her desk – too terrified to take her up on the offer to sit on her bed – while Miles had entertained them with jokes Ezra never heard because Candace’s laughter took over all his senses.

1. Well actually, he’d forgotten his number one favorite laugh because it was immediately replaced by this one. Every other time he’d heard that throaty melody, he’d been a bystander; accidentally infringing on someone else’s moment with her or her own moment with herself. But when she finally laughed with him – at him – it felt so much better, even if it shouldn’t have. It sounded so much sweeter.

“Of course, I know your name,” she said pulling him out of stasis. “My roommate and your roommate have been playing cat and mouse with each other since orientation.” She laughed as she turned and pointed at the party.

Ezra assumed she was gesturing at Miles and Mei. The two had basically imprinted on each other from the moment they’d met, and he and Candace had been unwitting spectators to the inevitable. But he didn’t look their way, so he couldn’t be sure, because for the first time all semester Candace Garret was looking at him. Talking to him. Laughing at him. And it was heaven.

When she turned back, her smile slipped slightly but only for a second. “Why are you over here all by yourself, Ezra?”

Her voice was different than he’d ever heard it. Deeper maybe? Intimate, he hoped for a fleeting second.

“I don’t like parties,” he admitted quietly.  

Her smile narrowed to a grin and it made him feel like they shared a secret. “Yeah, neither do I,” she said. “Especially not outdoor parties with cheap liquor and a severely high chance of starting a forest fire.”

He smiled or at least he thought he did. “This is really irresponsible.”

“Totally. But we’re supposed to be the brightest of the bright. The best of the best,” she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. He always liked that about her; that she could seem older and wiser and smarter than everyone else around them with a simple inflection of her voice, a wry smile and a graceful tip of her head.

“I-if you don’t like parties, why are you here?”

She moved to the rock he’d jumped from and lowered herself onto it gracefully. She did everything with grace. Candace was the exact opposite of his awkward, gangly mess of an existence. She looked up at him and waited until he sat back down. Next to her. His hands started to sweat as he lowered to the rock, perching on the edge so he could leave room between them because he knew she hadn’t meant for him to touch her; not even accidentally. She couldn’t have meant that, life couldn’t be so perfect as to give him his most cherished – albeit secret – fantasy.

“I’m here for the same reason you’re here probably,” she finally said. “To watch out for my roommate.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Ezra said. This time he did look at the party and his eyes zeroed in on their roommates. They were standing in the middle of the clearing making out, swaying slowly together even though the loud rap music blaring from the stereo was up tempo. Ezra might have thought their first kiss after months of pining would be gentle and slow like their swaying. It was not. They were attacking one another’s mouths. Aggressively. And they didn’t seem to care who saw them.

“So gross,” Candace muttered under her breath.

“Exactly how much have they had to drink?” He could feel Candace shift on the rock, closing the distance between them. Clearly accidentally.

“Too much. Not enough. Who knows? I think tonight was just a reason to make it official. That gross kiss is what young love looks like, my friend,” she snorted.

He turned to her and gulped before speaking, he was so nervous. She’d called him ‘friend.’ “What would you be doing if you weren’t here?”

She really seemed to think about her answer before she made eye contact with him and shrugged, “Don’t know, actually. Maybe reading or washing clothes since the laundry rooms are empty for once. Something boring for sure.”

He frowned slightly. “That’s not what I would have imagined,” he breathed.

She slid across the bench; her left thigh pressed against his right. Ezra swallowed a gasp. “I’m not nearly as deep and interesting as everyone thinks,” she said, almost shyly. And then she straightened, her elbow grazing his ribs. “What about you? What would you be doing?”

He had to force himself to breathe normally before he could answer. And even when he was able to speak, his voice sounded strained, tense. “Easy,” he croaked. “I’d be working on my submission to the Gilder engineering competition,” he said. He could still feel the sharp, sweet pain of her accidental touch.

“And what’s that?”

“Engineering innovations prize. The winner gets half a million-dollar investment to build a real model of their submission and career mentoring.”

“That’s amazing. When is it due?”

“Senior year.”

She blinked rapidly. “What?” She turned fully toward him, her left leg bent, and the dull point of her knee dug into his thigh. “It’s not due for three more years and you’re already working on it?”

He gulped. So much of her body was touching his. He tried to regulate his breathing and slow his heartbeat by sheer force of will. “It’s a huge deal,” he croaked. “They only give one prize every four years. There are people who’ve been working on their submissions since high school. And some alums are coming back to enter. Technically, I’m behind. I really should be in my room working on my project.” He said the last sentence – the same thing he’d been thinking for the past hour – but for the first time he didn’t mean it. For this beautiful, unexpected moment, Candace’s leg touching his was so much more important than the prize that had been his singular obsession since high school.

And then what would surely be the best night of his life got even better. He tried not to tense when her hands landed on his shoulders, but he did. Because Candace Garret was touching him on purpose. She turned him toward her.

She was beautiful. Her lips were parted in shock. Her eyes were wide. And then her mouth shifted from that wry grin to a full on, prize worthy, brighter than the sun smile that took his actual breath away. “You’re an interesting guy, Ezra Posner,” she whispered. “Real interesting.”

And then she kissed him.

[suchagiantnerd]

48 Books, 1 Year

I was just two books shy of my annual goal of 50! You can blame the combination of my adorable newborn, who refused to nap anywhere except on me, and Hallmark Christmas movie season, during which I abandon books for chaste kisses between 30-somethings who behave like tweens at places called the Mistletoe Inn (which are really in Almonte, Ontario). 

Without further ado, as Zuma from Paw Patrol says, “Let’s dive in!”

1. Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes / Nathan H. Lents

We have too many bones! We have to rely too much on our diet for survival! We suffer from too many cognitive biases! Reading about our design flaws was kind of interesting, but the best part of this book were the few pages toward the end about the possibility of alien life. Specifically this quote: "...some current estimates predict that the universe harbours around seventy-five million civilizations." WHAT?! This possibility more than anything else I've ever heard or read gives me a better idea of how infinite the universe really is.

2. The Fiery Cross / Diana Gabaldon

Compared to the first four books in the Outlander series, this fifth book is a real snooze. The characters are becoming more and more unlikeable. They're so self-centered and unaware of their privilege in the time and place they're living. Gabaldon's depictions of the Mohawk tribe and other First Nations characters (which I'm reading through her character's opinions of things) are pretty racist. The enslaved people at one character's plantation are also described as being well taken care of and I just.... can't. I think this is the end of my affair with Outlander.

3. Educated / Tara Westover

This memoir was a wild ride. Tara Westover grew up in a survivalist, ultra-religious family in rural Idaho. She didn’t go to school and was often mislead about the outside world by her father. She and her siblings were also routinely put in physical danger working in their father’s junkyard as their lives were “in god’s hands”, and when they were inevitably injured, they weren’t taken to the hospital or a doctor, but left to be treated by their healer mother. Thanks to her sheer intelligence and determination (and some support from her older brother), Tara goes to university and shares with us the culture shock of straddling two very different worlds. My non-fiction book club LOVED this read, we talked about it for a long, long time.

4. Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for St. Brigid’s Day / Carl F. Neal

Continuing with my witchy education, I learned all about the first sabbat of the new year, Imbolc.

5. Super Sad True Love Story / Gary Shteyngart

This in-the-very-near-future dystopian novel got my heart racing during a few exciting moments, but overall, I couldn’t immerse myself fully because of the MISOGYNY. I think the author might not like women and the things women like (or the things he thinks they like?) In this near future, all the dudes are into finance or are media celeb wannabes, while all the women work in high-end retail. And onion-skin jeans are the new trend for women - they are essentially see-through. Gary….we don’t…want that? We don’t even want low-rise jeans to come back.

6. The Wanderers / Meg Howrey

Helen, Yoshi and Sergei are the three astronauts selected by a for-profit space exploration company to man the world’s first mission to Mars. But before they get the green light, they have to endure a 17-month simulation. In addition to getting insight into the simulation from all three astronauts via rotating narrators, we also hear from the astronauts’ family members and other employees monitoring the sim. At times tense, at times thoughtful, this book is an incisive read about what makes explorers willing to leave behind everything they love the most in the world.

7. Zone One / Colson Whitehead

The zombie apocalypse has already happened, and Mark is one of the survivors working to secure and clean up Zone One, an area of Manhattan. During his hours and hours of boring shifts populated by a few harrowing minutes here and there, the reader is privy to Mark’s memories of the apocalypse itself and how he eventually wound up on this work crew. Mark is a pretty likeable, yet average guy rather than the standard zombie genre heroes, and as a result, his experiences also feel like a more plausible reality than those of the genre.

8. Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi

One of my favourite reads of the year, this novel is the definition of “sweeping epic”. The story starts off with two half-sisters (who don’t even know about each other’s existence) living in 18th-century Ghana. One sister marries a white man and stays in Ghana, living a life of privilege, while the other is sold into slavery and taken to America on a slave ship. This gigantic split in the family tree kicks off two parallel and vastly different narratives spanning EIGHT generations, ending with two 20-somethings in the present day. I remain in awe of Gyasi’s talent, and was enthralled throughout the entire book.

9. Sweetbitter / Stephanie Danler

Tess moves to New York City right out of school (and seemingly has no ties to her previous life - this bothered me, I wanted to know more about her past) and immediately lands a job at a beloved (though a little tired) fancy restaurant. Seemingly loosely based on Danler’s own experiences as a server, I got a real feel for the insular, incestuous, chaotic life in “the industry”. Tess navigates tensions between the kitchen and the front of house, falls for the resident bad-boy bartender, and positions herself as the mentee of the older and more glamorous head server, who may not be everything she seems. This is a juicy coming-of-age novel.

10. The Autobiography of Gucci Mane / Gucci Mane and Neil Martinez-Belkin

Gucci Mane is one of Atlanta’s hottest musicians, having helped bring trap music to the mainstream. I’d never heard of him until I read this book because I’m white and old! But not knowing him didn’t make this read any less interesting. In between wild facts (if you don’t get your music into the Atlanta strip clubs, your music isn’t making it out of Atlanta) and wilder escapades (Gucci holing himself up in his studio, armed to the teeth, in a fit of paranoia one night) Gucci Mane paints on honest picture of a determined, talented artist fighting to break free of a cycle of systemic racism and poverty.

11. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer / Michelle McNamara

McNamara was a journalist and true crime enthusiast who took it upon herself to try and solve the mystery of the Golden State Killer’s identity. Amazingly, her interest in this case also sparked other people’s interest in looking back at it, eventually leading to the arrest of the killer (though tragically, McNamara died a few months before the arrest and would never know how her obsession helped to capture him). This is a modern true crime classic and a riveting read.

12. A Great Reckoning / Louise Penny

The 12th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero starting a new job teaching cadets at Quebec’s police academy. Of course, someone is murdered, and Gamache and his team work to dig the rot out of the institution, uncovering a killer in the process.

13. Any Man / Amber Tamblyn

Yes, this novel is by THAT Amber Tamblyn, star of “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants”! Anyway, this book is a tad bit darker, and follows five men who’ve been victimized by the female serial rapist, who calls herself Maude. Going into this read I though that it might be some sort of revenge fantasy, but dudes, not to worry - we really feel awful for the male victims and see them in all their complexity. Perhaps, if more men read this book, they might better understand the trauma female and non-binary victims go through? That would require men to read books by women though. Guys? GUYS???

14. Ostara: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for the Spring Equinox / Kerri Connor

Yet another witchy read providing more information about this Spring sabbat. 

15. Scarborough / Catherine Hernandez

This novel takes place in OUR Scarborough! Following the lives of a number of residents (adults and children alike), the plot centres around the families attending an Ontario Early Years program as well as the program facilitator. Hernandez looks at the ways poverty, mental illness, addiction, race, and homophobia intersect within this very multicultural neighbourhood. It’s very sad, but there are also many sweet and caring moments between the children and within each of the families.

16. The Glitch / Elisabeth Cohen

Shelley Stone (kind of a fictional Sheryl Sandberg type) is the CEO of Conch, a successful Silicon Valley company. Like many of these over-the-top real-life tech execs, Shelley has a wild schedule full of business meetings, exercise, networking and parenting, leaving her almost no time to rest. While on an overseas business trip, she meets a younger woman also named Shelley Stone, who may or may not be her younger self. Is Shelley losing it? This is a dark comedy poking fun at tech start-up culture and the lie that we can have it all.

17. The Thirteenth Tale / Diane Setterfield

This is my kind of book! A young and inexperienced bookworm is handpicked to write the biography of an aging famous author, Vida Wynter. Summoned to her sprawling country home around Christmastime, the biographer is absolutely enthralled by Vida’s tales of a crumbling gothic estate and an eccentric family left too long to their own whims. Looking for a dark, twisty fairytale? This read’s for you.

18. Love & Misadventure / Lang Leav

Leav’s book of poems looked appealing, but for me, her collection fell short. I felt like I was reading a teenager’s poetry notebook (which I’m not criticizing, I love that teen girls write poetry, and surprise, surprise - so did I - but I’m too old for this kind of writing now).

19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows / Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hooo boy, my book club loved this one! Hoping to get a job more aligned with her literary interests, Nikki, the 20-something daughter of Indian immigrants to Britain, takes a job teaching writing at the community centre in London’s biggest Punjabi neighbourhood. The students are all older Punjabi women who don’t have much to do and because of their “widow” status have been somewhat sidelined within their community. Without anyone around to censor or judge them, the widows start sharing their own erotic fantasies with each other, each tale wilder than the last. As Nikki gets to know them better, she gains some direction in life and starts a romance of her own. (It should be noted that in addition to this lovely plot, there is a sub plot revolving around a possible honour killing in the community. For me, the juxtaposition of these two plots was odd, but not odd enough that it ruined the book.)

20. Beltane: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for May Day / Melanie Marquis

Beltane marks the start of the summer season in the witches’ year, and I learned all about how to ring it in, WITCH STYLE.

21. Summer of Salt / Katrina Leno

This book is essentially Practical Magic for teens, with a queer protagonist. All that to say, it’s enjoyable and sweet and a win for #RepresentationMatters, but it wasn’t a surprising or fresh story.

22. Too Like the Lightning / Ada Palmer

This is the first in the Terra Ignota quartet of novels, which is (I think) speculative fiction with maybe a touch of fantasy and a touch of sci-fi and a touch of theology and certainly a lot of philosophical ruminating too. I both really enjoyed it and felt so stupid while reading it. As a lifelong bookworm who doesn’t shy away from difficult reads, I almost never feel stupid while reading, but this book got me. The world building is next level and as soon as you think you’ve found your footing, Palmer pulls the rug out from under you and you’re left both stunned and excited about her latest plot twist. Interested in finding out what a future society grouped into ‘nations’ by interests and passions (instead of geographical borders and ethnicity) might be like? Palmer takes a hearty stab at it here.

23. The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster / Sarah Krasnostein

When Sarah Krasnostein met Sandra Pankhurst, she knew she had to write her biography (or something like it - this book is part biography, part love letter, part reckoning). And rightly so, as Sandra has led quite a life. She grew up ostracized within her own home by her immediate family, married and had children very young, came out as a trans woman and begin living as her authentic self (but abandoning her own young family in the process), took to sex work and lived through a vicious assault, married again, and started up her own successful company cleaning uncleanable spaces - the apartments of hoarders, the houses of recluses, the condos in which people ended their own lives. Sandra is the definition of resilience, but all her traumas (both the things people have done to her and the things she’s done to others) have left their mark, as Krasnostein discovers as she delicately probes the recesses of Sandra’s brain.

24. Becoming / Michelle Obama

My favourite things about any memoir from an ultra-famous person are the random facts that surprise you along the way. In this book, it was learning that all American presidents travel with a supply of their blood type in the event of an assassination attempt. I mean OF COURSE they would, but that had never occurred to me. I also appreciated Michelle opening up about her fertility struggles, the difficult decision to put her career on hold to support Barack’s dreams, and the challenge of living in the spotlight with two young children that you hope to keep down to earth. Overall, I think Michelle was as candid as someone in her position can be at this point in her life.

25 and 26. Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle / Ada Palmer

I decided to challenge myself and stick with Palmer’s challenging Terra Ignota series, also reading the second and third instalments (I think the fourth is due to be released this year). I don’t know what to say, other than the world-building continues to be incredible and this futuristic society is on the bring of something entirely new.

27. Even Vampires Get the Blues / Kate MacAlister

This novel wins for “cheesiest read of the year”. When a gorgeous half-elf detective (you read that right) meets a centuries-old sexy Scottish vampire, sparks fly! Oh yeah, and they’re looking for some ancient thing in between having sex.

28. A Case of Exploding Mangoes / Mohammed Hanif

A piece of historical fiction based on the real-life suspicious plane crash in 1988 that killed many of Pakistan’s top military brass, this novel lays out many possible culprits (including a crow that ate too many mangoes). It’s a dark comedy taking aim at the paranoia of dictators and the boredom and bureaucracy of the military (and Bin Laden makes a cameo at a party).

29. Salvage the Bones / Jesmyn Ward

This novel takes place in the steaming hot days before Hurricane Katrina hits the Mississippi coast. The air is still and stifling and Esch’s life in the small town of Bois Sauvage feels even more stifled. Esch is 14 and pregnant and hasn’t told anyone yet. Her father is a heavy drinker and her three brothers are busy with their own problems. But as the storm approaches, the family circles around each other in preparation for the storm. This is a jarring and moving read made more visceral by the fact that the author herself survived Katrina. It’s also an occasionally violent book, and there are particularly long passages about dog-fighting (a hobby of one of the brothers). The dog lovers in my book club found it hard to get through, consider this your warning!

30. Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay / Phoebe Robinson

A collection of essays in the new style aka writing multiple pages on a topic as though you were texting your best friend about it (#ImFineWithThisNewStyleByTheWay #Accessible), Robinson discusses love, friendship, being a Black woman in Hollywood, being plus-ish-size in Hollywood, and Julia Roberts teaching her how to swim (and guys, Julia IS as nice in real life as we’d all hoped she was!) Who is Robinson? Comedy fans will likely know her already, but I only knew her as one of the stars of the Netflix film Ibiza (which I enjoyed). This is a fun, easy read!

31. Midsummer: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Litha / Deborah Blake

After reading this book, I charged my crystals under the midsummer sun!

32. Fingersmith / Sarah Waters

So many twists! So many turns! So many hidden motives and long-held secrets! Think Oliver Twist meets Parasite meets Lost! (Full disclosure, I haven’t seen Parasite yet, I’m just going off all the chatter about it). Sue is a con artist orphan in old-timey London. When the mysterious “Gentleman” arrives at her makeshift family’s flat with a proposal for the con of all cons, Sue is quickly thrust into a role as the servant for another young woman, Maud, living alone with her eccentric uncle in a country estate. As Sue settles into her act, the lines between what she’s pretending at and what she’s really feeling start to blur, and nothing is quite what it seems. This book is JUICY!

33. Rest Play Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) / Deborah MacNamara, PhD

I read approximately one parenting book a year, and this was this year’s winner. As my eldest approached her third birthday, we started seeing bigger and bigger emotions and I wasn’t sure how to handle them respectfully and gently. This book gave me a general roadmap for acknowledging her feelings, sitting through them with her, and the concept of “collecting” your child to prevent tantrums from happening or to help calm them down afterward. I’ll be using this approach for the next few years!

34. Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Lammas / Melanie Marquis

And with this read, I’ve now read about the entire witch’s year. SO MOTE IT BE.

35. In Cold Blood / Truman Capote

How had I not read this until now? This true-crime account that kicked off the modern genre was rich in detail, compassionate to the victims, and dug deep into the psyche of the killers. The descriptions of the midwest countryside and the changing seasons also reminded me of Keith Morrison’s voiceovers on Dateline. Is Capote his inspiration?

36. I’m Afraid of Men / Vivek Shraya

A quick, short set of musings from trans musician and writer Shraya still packs an emotional punch. She writes about love and loss, toxic masculinity, breaking free of gender norms, and what it’s like to exist as a trans woman.

37. The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You / Elaine N. Aron, PhD

Having long thought I might be a highly sensitive person (lots of us are!), I decided to learn more about how to better cope with stressful situations when I don’t have enough alone time or when things are too loud or when I get rattled by having too much to do any of the other myriad things that shift me into panic mode. Though some of the advice is a bit too new-agey for me (talking to your inner child, etc), some of it was practical and useful.

38. Swamplandia! / Karen Russell

The family-run alligator wrestling theme park, Swamplandia, is swimming in debt and about to close. The widowed father leaves the everglades for the mainland in a last-ditch attempt to drum up some money, leaving the three children to fend for themselves. A dark coming-of-age tale that blends magic realism, a ghost story, the absurd and a dangerous boat trip to the centre of the swamplands, this novel examines a fractured family mourning its matriarch in different ways.

39. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground / Alicia Elliott

This is a beautiful collection of personal essays brimming with vulnerability, passion, and fury. Elliott, the daughter of a Haudenosaunee father and a white mother, shares her experiences growing up poor in a family struggling with mental illness, addiction and racism. Topics touch on food scarcity, a never-ending battle with lice, parenthood and the importance of hearing from traditionally marginalized voices in literature. 

40. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay / Elena Ferrante

The third novel in Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet sees Elena and Lila move from their early twenties into their thirties and deal with a riot of issues - growing careers, changing political beliefs, the challenges of motherhood and romantic relationships, and existing as strong-willed, intelligent women in 1960s and 70s Italy. I’ll definitely finish the series soon.

41. Half-Blood Blues / Esi Edugyan

A small group of American and German jazz musicians working on a record find themselves holed up in Paris as the Germans begin their occupation in WW2. Hiero, the youngest and most talented member of the group, goes out one morning for milk and is arrested by the Germans, never to be heard from again. Fifty years later, the surviving members of the band go to Berlin for the opening night of a documentary about the jazz scene from that era, and soon find themselves on a road trip through the European countryside to find out what really became of Hiero all those years ago. Edugyan’s novel is a piercing examination of jealousy, ambition, friendship, race and guilt. And features a cameo by Louis Armstrong!

42. A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming / Kerri Rawson

So Brad and I had just finished watching season 2 of Mindhunter, and as I browse through a neighbourhood little library, I spot this book and the serial killer in question is the BTK Killer! Naturally, I had to read it. What I didn’t realize is that this is actually a Christian book, so Rawson does write a lot about struggling with her belief in God and finding her way back to Him, etc. But there are also chapters more fitting with the true crime and memoir genres that I equally enjoyed and was creeped out by.

43. The Night Ocean / Paul La Farge

This is another book that made me feel somewhat stupid as a reader. I just know there are details or tidbits that completely went over my head that would likely enrich a better reader’s experience. In broad strokes, the novel is about a failed marriage between a psychiatrist and a writer who became dangerously obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and the rumours that swirled around him and his social circle. The writer’s obsession takes him away from his marriage and everything else, and eventually it looks like he ends his own life. The psychiatrist is doubtful (no body was found) and she starts to follow him down the same rabbit hole. At times tense, at times funny, at times sad, I enjoyed the supposed world of Lovecraft and his fans and peers, but again, I’m sure there are deeper musings here that I couldn’t reach.

44. Glass Houses / Louise Penny

The 13th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero taking big risks to fight the opioid crisis in Quebec. He and his team focus on catching the big crime boss smuggling drugs across the border from Vermont, endangering his beloved town of Three Pines in the process. 

45. The Bone Houses / Emily Lloyd-Jones

My Halloween read for the year, this dark fairytale of a YA novel was perfect for the season. Since her parents died, Ryn has taken over the family business - grave digging - to support herself and her siblings. As the gravedigger, she knows better than most that due to an old curse, the dead in the forest surrounding her village don’t always stay dead. But as more of the forest dead start appearing (and acting more violently than usual), Ryn and an unexpected companion (yes, a charming young man cause there’s got to be a romance!) travel to the heart of the forest to put a stop to the curse once and for all.

46. The Witches Are Coming / Lindy West

Another blazing hot set of essays from my favourite funny feminist take on Trump, abortion rights, #MeToo, and more importantly Adam Sandler and Dateline. As always, Lindy, please be my best friend?

47. Know My Name / Chanel Miller

This memoir is HEAVY but so, so needed. Recently, Chanel Miller decided to come forward publicly and share that she was the victim of Brock Turner’s sexual assault. She got the courage to do so after she posted her blistering and beautiful victim impact statement on social media and it went viral. Miller’s memoir is a must-read, highlighting the incredible and awful lengths victims have to go to to see any modicum of justice brought against their attackers. Miller dealt with professional ineptitude from police and legal professionals, victim-blaming, victim-shaming, depression and anxiety, the inability to hold down a job, and still managed to come out the other side of this trial intact. And in the midst of all the horror, she writes beautifully about her support system - her family, boyfriend and friends - and about the millions of strangers around the world who saw themselves in her experience.

48. Christmas Ghost Stories: A Collection of Winter Tales / Mark Onspaugh

Ghosts AND Christmas? Yes please! This quirky collection features a wide array of festively spooky tales. You want the ghost of Anne Boleyn trapped in a Christmas ornament? You got it! What about the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future drinking together in a bar? Yup, that’s here too! 

__

So, what were my top picks of the year, the books that stuck with me the most? In no particular order:

Educated

Homegoing

The Wanderers

Know My Name

Scarborough

[wellhalesbells]

I see you reblogging some comic stuff an I was wondering if you have a favorite comic or favorite character or ship?

this ask is from so long ago but [DEEP BREATH IN] i’m finally going to answer it, nonny.  finally.  i kept wanting to read a little bit farther in my comics stack because.... maybe i’ll like that and will regret not having recced it, i just hafta--get--to it, see?  and, honestly, i’m still there BUT, come on, i’ll never be caught up because that would mean comics would just have to stop coming out and i would be sad forever if that happened, SO

i’m not even going to pretend like i can narrow this down to one comic.  (one ship?  sure, that’s spideypool.  one character?  sure, that’s the merc with a mouth, the regenerating degenerate, wade motherfucking wilson.  but one comic?!)  there is just straight-up too much out there to make a definitive ‘yes, this is it, this is THE ONE ™ ’ statement.  instead, uh, let’s break this shit down, yeah?  (super special secret bonus round, will note all lgbt+ rep and standalone comics.)  in no particular order, here the frig it goes!

HORROR

infidel, by pornsak pichetshote and aaron campbell.  in case you haven’t seen this on every 2018 best list ever, here it is.  and, yeah, it was good.  a muslim-american main character living in a haunted apartment building where the entities feed off the xenophobia of its occupants.  if that’s not a fucking modern horror story i don’t know what is.

spread, by justin jordan and kyle strahm.  THIS IS ONE OF MY NEW AND ALREADY ALL-TIME FAVORITES.  what an awesomely weird and epic story.  the spread is an uncontrollable, unstoppable monster-making force that humanity accidentally unleashed by digging too deep.  it infects everything it touches and basically all of humanity is running from quarantine to quarantine just hoping for the best.  and speaking of hope.... she’s a baby, rescued by no, and the only thing that’s ever been able to stop the spread.  also, no’s gay?  and i just DID NOT see that coming.  it seems like it’s going to be such a formulaic, bro-y story about the action hero who kisses the face off his girl (her name’s molly and she’s batshit insane and amazing) and instead, nope, it is not that at all.  lgbt+ main characters.

the black monday murders, by jonathan hickman and tomm coker.  hate capitalism?  think all the rich and powerful are evil, soul-sucking monsters?  [obnoxious, low-budget commercial sound effects] MAN, HAVE I GOT THE SERIES FOR YOU.

the beauty, by jeremy haun and jason a. hurley.  i just started this recently but so far, oh my good golly gosh, i looove it.  a sexually transmitted disease that makes you conventionally gorgeous.... at least before it explodies you.  [wide, creepy smile]  the art is gorgeous, the characters are aces and i am very, very pleased so far.  lgbt+ minor characters.

the great divide, by ben fisher and adam markiewicz.  this?  was a COOL idea.  the execution stumbled a bit but, gosh, was it neat.  it’s post-apocalyptic where touching another person will literally kill.... one of you.  the survivor then absorbs the memories of the person who dies, taking on a ‘rider.’  some people collect them, some people go mad, some form a bond, all have the side effect of dyslexia.  like i said, neat as all get out.  lgbt+ minor-ish/main-ish character.  standalone.

revival, by tim seely and mike norton.  a rural town in wisconsin experiences ‘miracle day,’ where the dead rise again.... except, they were kinda already mourned and buried and this is really just fucking up the status quo.

the woods, by james tynion iv and michael dialynas.  a high school gets picked up and plopped down in an entirely new, and wickedly hostile universe.  it’s all survival and alliances and seeing what you’re really made of when it comes down to it.  lgbt+ main characters. 

clean room, by gail simone and jon davis-hunt.  a cult, a journalist and a clean room walk into a bar...

anya’s ghost, by vera brosgol.  you think it’ll be a cute story of a girl and her ghost.  HA HA THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS AT ALL, OKAY.

FANTASY

rumble, by john arcudi and james harren.  SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD, SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD, SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD!!!  okay, first off, the art in this?  pushes every friggin’ button i’ve got, and many i did not know i had.  second, this book is so fucking fun.  it’s mythology that’s balls to the wall ridiculous, funny, and features a main character whose life motto is basically: ‘do i have to?’  infinitely relatable and then some.

heathen, by natasha alterici and rachel deering.  UGH, ONE OF MY FAVORITES.  the art is just horribly, horrendously gorgeous and it’s LESBIAN VIKING MYTHOLOGY, OKAY.  OKAYYYY???   lgbt+ main characters.

the wicked + the divine, by kieron gillen and jamie mckelvie.  one of my favorite ever series right here.  it’s a hella cool concept (gods reincarnating as humans every twelve years, and burning up their hosts in two), whip-smart and if you’ve ever met a human being who likes a pun more than kieron gillen i defy you to produce them.  lgbt+ main and minor characters.

batgirl, by gail simone and adrian sayaf and vicente cifuentes.  you know how people rave about gail simone?  there’s a reason people rave about gail simone.  honestly, i’ve never had much interest in babs.  i don’t tend to go for superheroes who don’t kill and i have even less interest in ‘the killing joke’ story line and i am convinced only gail simone could’ve done the recovery on that and she did a GLORIOUS job of it.

red hood and the outlaws, by scott lobdell and dexter soy.  (ignoring recent - and annoying - developments), this is my favorite of all the rebirths dc did.  scott lobdell is the only writer to have gotten the idea down of: okay, we’re starting over, i assume you don’t know anything but i also assume there are a bajillion people reading who know everything, and hit the perfect medium between those two things.  so if you want to start a jason todd run, you legitimately can here, and get all the found family, badassery, batman-teasing enjoyment there is to be had.

iceman, by sina grace and robert gill (covers by kevin wada).  classic super-heroing here and bobby’s first solo title.  he’s figuring out coming out while fighting (and flirting) with baddies.  sina really gets his humor and how truly wonder-awful it is!  lgbt+ main character.

spider-man/deadpool, by joe kelly and ed mcguinness.  watch those names there, those are your guys right there, period.  they looked at the void of a spider-man/deadpool series and filled it with absolutely everything you could possibly want for the pair (sans a hardcore make-out sesh, though they did get a few variant covers with some puckered up lips in there!)

limbo, by dan watters and caspar wijngaard.  a fusion of 80s aesthetics, voodoo elements and a noir tone.  just some remarkably cool shit in this.  the ending, for me, left something to be desired but it was more than worth it to see worship via mixtapes.  standalone.

hawkeye: kate bishop, by kelly thompson and leonardo romero.  kate bishop is, apparently???, a super impossible character for a lot of writers.  kelly thompson is not one of them.  kelly thompson is my favorite kate bishop writer, actually, and the fact that she is ever not writing her is a gd travesty.

the unbeatable squirrel girl, by ryan north and erica henderson.  honestly, i’m so tempted to just stick this under ‘contemporary,’ because it really does just feel very... normal.  doreen’s navigating college, new friendships, and y’know... the squirrely-ness.  this had every opportunity to suck and instead it’s funny as heck, never takes itself too seriously, and is just pure good-hearted entertainment through and through.

wolf, by ales kot and matt taylor.  a paranormal detective and the-possible-antichrist go on a road trip.  people hated this comic and i don’t know how you can hate a comic that has a character called freddy chtonic who has tentacles for a mouth??? 

ms. marvel, by g. willow wilson and adrian alphona.  hi, you read ms. marvel because the world is a garbage fire and people are terrible and your cynicism is at an all time high and then kamala khan waltzes in and reminds you people generally want to help each other and the world improves when we work together and that thing optimists feel?  you’ll feel that for as long as you’ve got the pages open and that’s a magical thing.  lgbt+ minor character.

monstress, by marjorie m. liu and sana takeda.  psychic links with monsters, matriarchal societies, magic and witchery, half-human/half-animal (and other ratios) characters, all through a steampunk lens.  what’s not to like about that??

inhuman, by charles soule.  i love this series, i love the idea of being a total average joe/joanne, getting smacked in the face by a cloud of mist and suddenly having to figure out how to live basically a whole new life.  also, if you don’t fall madly in love with dante pertuz, i don’t even know what to tell you, my dude.

heart in a box, by kelly thompson and meredith mcclaren.  break-ups suck, but only because of that whole pesky broken heart thing, right?  so emma gives hers away.  problem solved, no?  standalone.

i kill giants, by joe kelly and j.m. ken niimura.  i didn’t cry my eyes out or anything.  did not.  standalone.

sex criminals, by matt fraction and chip zdarsky.  having sex = stopping time, which leads suzie and jon to the only logical conclusion: let’s rob some banks!

hawkeye, by matt fraction and david aja.  honestly there are a lot of other artist combos in this run but the only ones that are worthwhile are the ones that have fraction and aja’s names on them - sorry not sorry.

SCIENCE FICTION

black bolt, by saladin ahmed and christian ward.  saladin revived this character one hundred million percent.  there is absolutely a reason this was parading around all over ‘best’ lists when it was released.  it really, really did the damn thing.

saga, by brian k. vaughan and fiona staples.  this is the comic you recommend to people who don’t even like comics because it is that good.  like, my dad - who hadn’t read a comic since he was a pre-teen, eagerly awaits each new trade.  the world-building, the characters, the care put into every single solitary bit of all the things?  unparalleled.  lgbt+ minor characters.

frostbite, by joshua williamson and jason shawn alexander.  a post-apocalyptic story that has humanity dying from a plague that literally freezes you from the inside out.  very neat, very cold, very readable.  standalone.

descender, by jeff lemire and dustin nguyen.  this had a rough start, for me, with the main character of the first trade being tim-21, an android who is literally incapable of having the depth to be a lead BUT that does not last through to the next trade, thank god.  lots of space and found family and world-building in this to be had!  but you know how people rave about jeff lemire?  there’s a reason people rave about jeff lemire.

paper girls, by brian k. vaughan and cliff chiang.  the 80s and time travel and lifelong friendships.  it’s brian k. vaughan, you know it’s good, okay?  why do i even have to sell you here, man?  lgbt+ main characters.

injection, by warren ellis and declan shalvey.  this is another one on my list that started out a little rough but really appealed to me later on.  there was just a lot to absorb in that first trade but, once you’ve got it, the ride gets way, way smoother.   lgbt+ main and minor characters.

black science, by rick remender and matteo scalera.  this was a rocky start, because the main character is such an asshole but in a way where he can’t see he’s an asshole, he’s just a tortured genius who’s superior to all of you, don’t you know? but i am so glad i persevered because if that’s the set up?  the rest of the series is knocking him back down.  super scientist grant mckay finds a way to access the eververse, every possible reality the universe has on offer, and that’s really what causes every single problem that follows.  hard to cause the apocalypse and be an arrogant prick, ya know?

CONTEMPORARY

giant days, by john allison and lissa treiman.  this series is so funny and smart and warm.  these girls are so kind to each other and relatable and failing at adulting regularly and often and i love reading about them.  lgbt+ main character.

lumberjanes, by noelle stevenson and grace ellis and brooke a. allen.  this is funny and ridiculous and kind and cool and all other awesome adjectives and you should read it, fact.  lgbt+ main characters.

my brother’s husband, by gengoroh tagame and anne ishii (translator).  this is such a sweet story about acceptance and family tbh.   lgbt+ main character.

fence, by c. s. pacat and johanna the mad.  i mean... i need to see nicholas and seiji hook-up, i need that, stat.  stat means now!   lgbt+ main characters.

WEB/INDEPENDENT COMICS

long exposure, by kam heyward.  so mitch and jonas are my absolute faves and i love them to death and the author is so kind in that they actually put this up in print on indyplanet so i can read it the way i, personally, love to read comics (and - bonus! - support them with the monies).  lgbt+ main characters.

modern dread, by pat shand and ryan fassett (editors).  i’ve been trying to find more better horror comics lately so i’ve been kind of half-heartedly stumbling through kickstarter on the hunt and this was SUCH a great find.  it’s an anthology but more cleverly done than any other kickstarter anthology i’ve read, with a main story line that seamlessly strings together the would-be-disjointed ones.  this was really thoughtfully put together and really well done!  standalone.

heartstopper, by alice oseman.  a very sweet story about two high school-aged boys becoming fast friends, playing rugby and falling in love.  the two characters are mentioned as an aside in the author’s book, solitaire, and she became so invested in them that she wrote their backstory as a free webcomic.   lgbt+ main characters.

the pale, by jay fabares.  JUST started this (like, just a day or so ago) but i’m enjoying it so far!

hotblood!, by toril orlesky.  i mean... is it a webcomic about a centaur falling in love with his boss?  it just might be.  did i get a bound edition through a kickstarter campaign?  maybe.  maybe i did that.  who’s to say?   lgbt+ main characters.

the bay, by bbz.  life on mars through the lens of three young professionals who form an odd but lasting friendship.  lgbt+ main characters.

hard drive, by artroan.  is it a nsfw comic about a dude and a robot?  .... it might be a nsfw comic about a dude and a robot.  [coughs]   lgbt+ main characters.

seen nothing yet, by tess stone.  a nsfw comic about two amateur ghost hunters.  can’t imagine why i might be interested in that [coughs]   lgbt+ main characters.

captain imani and the cosmic chase, by lin darrow and alex assan.  i mean did i want a starship captain who can’t help but lust after the smuggler he’s chasing.  i mean, maybe i did.  maybe.   lgbt+ main characters.

taproot, by keezy young.  ghost falls in love with boy, boy falls in love with ghost, AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.  lgbt+ main characters.

always raining here, by bell and hazel.  just two boys falling in lurve.  lgbt+ main characters.

[folklifestyle]

A new adventure begins tomorrow. For eight years I’ve been the voice behind @folkmagazine. I’ve been the person leading it behind the scenes through ups and downs. I’ve grown along side it as if it were my child. A few years ago it grew up and took on a life of its own. It’s transition from being centered around me and my love of Americana, small towns, makers, handmade, rural adventures, community building, and old fashioned ways of living, and instead became directed by adventure, travel, and epic landscapes. There isn’t a thing wrong with that, and I’m beyond thankful for the opportunities it’s afforded me and the brand. However in all of that epicness I removed myself from the identity of the brand because it was no longer about me, it was about the insanely amazing community that had developed and grown around it. I am forever thankful for every high and every low, but today I am starting a new adventure of my very own. An adventure that will carry my own name, an adventure that will take me back to my roots, one that will allow me to regain my voice and my expertise and share a beautiful new journey with you. Tomorrow begins @benashby.co and the website that goes along with it. I hope you’ll stick around and journey forward with me as I reconnect with my roots and what led me to this social media world in the first place. #liveauthentic is about to get a whole lot more authentic. (at Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp00jOWFlZb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=289voo6xbron

[hail-king-grimes]

tekehues replied to your post:  hows LIFE bitch...

how did you have two rabies scares what HAPPENED

MAAAN SDHGKSAJHG okay LONG STORY TIME

So the first one was this like, REALLY old cat that was mostly indoor but escaped the patio from time to time, not up to date on rabies vaccine, and randomly presented with neurologic changes that declined over the course of several days. We were pretty sure he had some sort of brain lesion or something of the like. The owners elected humane euthanasia and because of the spotty vaccine history (and the fact that the cat had bitten them during transit) they chose to test for rabies.

No sweat, right? I mean, the likelihood of it actually being positive was low, so it was more of a precaution than anything.

The second one was a LITTLE more scary. Like, we were REAL concerned this one could actually come back with a positive result. This girl who works in reception found a little kitten with a puncture wound of unknown origin. Brings the kitten in, gets it checked out, does all the things you’re supposed to do as far as vaccine series, parasite prevention, etc.

Fast forward like 6-7 months, and said kitten starts having seizures out of the blue. Admitted for IV fluids and anti-seizure meds, but still declines dramatically over the course of days. The girl decides to take the kitten home so her mom can spend some time with her and bring her back first thing in the morning with the whole family to say goodbye. Overnight, the cat started having episodes of staggering, foaming at the mouth and straight up died before they could even get her in somewhere on emergency.

Now, here’s the thing. In areas where rabies is not at all prevalent (high vaccination rates, not a lot of wild animals, not a lot of roaming pets), you wouldn’t think of rabies right off the bat. Especially in an indoor cat who had been seen many times up to that point over the course of weeks, handled by practically the entire clinic staff, and seemed FINE up until the time that she wasn’t. 

But here’s the other thing. Rabies can take anywhere from 10 days to six entire months to show symptoms. That’s what made this whole situation a real bastard. An old cat who stays around the house most of his life and has some weird neuro issues, is not likely to be rabid. A young cat, found as a kitten living outside in a semi-rural area, with an unexplained puncture wound (fence wire? hawk talon? animal bite? WHO FRICKIN KNOWS MAN) with no other unexplained illnesses, going downhill like that? PRETTY HECKIN LIKELY.

So! The fun part. If an animal comes back with a positive result, ANY AND ALL STAFF who have handled that patient AT ALL have to receive those epic, pain-in-the-ass post-exposure vaccines. A bite or scratch isn’t even necessary at that point, you treat it as if you have been exposed to the virus. And my unlucky ass ended up assisting in hospitalizing BOTH patients and the first one scratched me and the second one got drool all over my arm so at this point if anyone comes in with a neurologic cat and asks me to hold it or place an IV in it I’mma be like “nah I’ve exceeded my quota for the year” 

Anyway tl;dr both were negative, and nobody ended up having to get post-exposure vaccinations but there’s just. A REAL AWKWARD TIME when you’re waiting to hear back from the lab and it takes 7 days to get results and your window of exposure to safely be vaccinated is like 7-10 days like??  

Anyway that’s my very long non-rabies rabies story. Veterinary medicine is fun, lmao.