Going to be honest. Books about cannibalism and/or flesh in relation to exploitation, eco-fascism and the food industry always hits a bit different for me, and is much better than "cannibalism as love metaphor uwu"
*is this because I'm aro or because cannibalism as social satire horror is simply genius, we'll never know
Men's femininity is very different from the femininity that is a requirement of women's subordinate status, because women do not choose femininity but have it thrust upon them. Femininity is not a form of sexual fantasy for women but the hard and often resented work required of those who occupy subordinate social status.
hello hello hello everyone!!!! local weird archivist, lesbian, and mythology nerd here. did you know I also make stuff? now you do, and even better you can get some custom stuff!!
I make a lot of book recommendation lists for friends and work (check out some examples here), and I realized I have a lot of fun doing it, so I want to do it for other people!! if you would like custom recommendations on any topic you’re interested in, fill out the commission form here and I’ll make you one!!
I also have a literal degree in music, and one of my friends recently commissioned me to transcribe some of her favorite songs into (viola) sheet music; I hadn’t even thought of that as a commission idea before but now that I’ve done it I think it’s super cool, so if you want a song for you or a friend or sibling or parent put onto sheet music and you can’t find it online, commission me here!! I really want to do these, so please do commission me! I can translate vocal lines to instrument lines, straight up notate existing vocal/guitar/bass lines, and even do extra stuff if you have more time and money (email me, I would love to do complex projects!!)
also please feel free to share this around!!! I want to make cool stuff for cool people, and sharing is the best way to help me do that. I hope you guys like and share this, and I can’t wait to start making cool stuff soon!!!
Final count 72! I set a goal of 52 originally but raised the bar when I realized that would only bring me into early November.
Decided it would be fun to share some stats and recommendations along with the full list.
First, ten recommendations:
The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner (best completed series)
Gregory Orr, The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write (best new poetry read)
Minka Kelly, Tell Me Everything (best memoir)
E.B. White, Here Is New York (best short read)
Carrie Fisher, The Princess Diarist (best journals)
Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family (best children's lit)
Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout (best poetry memoir)
George Eliot, Middlemarch (best classic)
Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart (best food writing)
Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (best sci-fi/ongoing series + best audio drama (Red Rising (Book 1))
Of my 72 reads, 31 were rereads, 41 new . Four were audiobooks, the rest print (primarily e-books). My longest read was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. My shortest read (I think? A lot of poetry collections are short) was the longform essay, Here Is New York by E.B. White. I read the most books in December (15) and the least in June (2). 50 authors were women, 21 were men, and one poetry collection was multi-author. My most-read authors were as follows:
Megan Whalen Turner (7 books)
Lucy Maud Montgomery (6 books)
Louise Glück (5 books)
Elizabeth Wein (5 books)
Jane Austen (3 books)
Pierce Brown (3 books)
Full list organized by month under the cut!
Favorites: Bold | Rereads: Underline
Fiction: Blue | Non-Fiction: Red | Poetry: Purple | Audiobook: *
JANUARY
Megan Whalen Turner, The Thief
2. Annie Chagnot & Emi Ikkanda (eds.), How Lovely the Ruins
3. Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen
FEBRUARY
4. Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
5. Richard Siken, War of the Foxes
6. Jane Austen, Sense & Sensibility
MARCH
7. Rita Dove, Playlist for the Apocalypse
8. Louise Glück, The Seven Ages
9. Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
APRIL
10. Megan Whalen Turner, Moira's Pen
11. Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen of Attolia
12. Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia
13. Megan Whalen Turner, A Conspiracy of Kings
MAY
14. Megan Whalen Turner, Thick as Thieves
15. Megan Whalen Turner, Return of the Thief
16. Elizabeth Wein, The Winter Prince
17. Elizabeth Wein, A Coalition of Lions
18. Elizabeth Wein, Sunbird
19. Elizabeth Wein, The Lion Hunter
JUNE
20. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
21. bell hooks, Applachian Elegy
JULY
22. Michael Gibney, Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line*
23. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
24. Elizabeth Wein, The Empty Kingdom
25. Dorothy Dunnett, Spring of the Ram
26. Michael Bazzett, You Must Remember This
27. Lisa Ampelman, Romances
28. Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
29. Natalie Diaz, Post-Colonial Love Poem
AUGUST
30. Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
31. Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You
32. Natalie Diaz, When My Brother Was an Aztec
33. Ocean Vuong, Time Is a Mother
34. L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars
35. Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds
SEPTEMBER
36. Gregory Orr, The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write
After failing to do so for the last two years, I’ve gone through my books-read for the year & compiled a list of my favourite reads!
While doing this I also discovered that I’d missed putting four entire books on my master list that all should have been in my best-of list, so here’s the final top 22 (in no particular order)…
Matrix - Lauren Groff
My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
Echo - Thomas Olde Heuvelt
The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley
The Waiting - Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder
The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel
These Ghosts Are Family - Maisy Card
Greenwood - Michael Christie
Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
A Master of Djinn - P. Djèli Clark
What is Home, Mum? - Sabba Khan
The Women of Troy - Pat Barker
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina - Zoraida Córdova
Fevered Star - Rebecca Roanhorse
Blackfish City - Sam J. Miller
Just Like Home - Sarah Gailey
The Book of Form & Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers
The Galaxy, And the Ground Within - Becky Chambers
Stormsong - C.L. Polk
Soulstar - C.L. Polk
If you want to look at all the books I read/re-read this year, you can see my entire messy googledoc list here!
Turns out that being absolutely terrible at managing a library holds list + feeling obliged to finish almost all the books I take out = reading the most I've ever read in a year (Total was also helped by a visit to the used bookstore in the town closest to my cottage + buying a huge stack of British mystery novels to devour during my time up north)??
Also, I'm always looking for book recommendations! What were your favourite reads of 2022? Are there exciting books you know are coming out in 2023/any books that you've got on your list for the new year (new or old pubs)? Please tell me them!!
*illustration at the top there is by me, from the book that I finished illustrating back in the summer...hopefully I'll have an idea of when that's coming out soon!
Another good reading year for the books! This year I embarked on my first experience with a book club which has been a life long desire of mine! I can confidently say that in participating in it, I've been pushed to be more consistent in my literary pursuits as well as broaden the genres of books I normally gravitate towards.
My goal this year was to read 40 books which I'm happy to report I have surpassed! Last year, I reached for an ambitious 50, in which I sadly fell short. Moving forward, 45 seems to be the sweet spot for my reading habits.
This year, I've decided to split my reviews into genres of books to cover more ground and give a more focused scope.
1: Biographies:
This year I read a wide range of people's stories from the hyped up "I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jenette McCurdy to Spare by Prince Harry, to lesser known titles such as Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones and Invisible Boy by Harrison Mooney.
Notable reads for me were Untamed by Glennon Doyle, I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre for there strong writing, concise story, and depth of emotion.
2: Reese's Bookclub Picks
Anyone who knows me, is aware of my deep love of Reese's book club picks. She just never misses on the books she recommends and I've become an avid follower of her for this reason.
The ones I read this year are: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
All of them were great.
3: General Modern Romance
Perhaps one of my favourite genres, I read a great many books in this category.
Honorable mentions for great characters and story are The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, Beach Read by Emily Henry, Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, A Wedding in Provence by Kate Fforde, The Wake Up Call by Beth O'Leary, and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.
4: General Thriller
This is also a fun category for me and the ones that stood out this year for good twists were All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, and Greenwich Park by Kathrine Faulkner.
5: General Fiction
One of my proudest accomplishments this year was reading Dune by Frank Hubert. Other standouts were Weyward by Emilia Hart and The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall. Both told captivating stories of nuanced people and circumstances.
As always, thanks for following along my reading journey.
You can follow along on Goodreads under the username: Laura Marazzi which can be found here: Laura Marazzi - Abbotsford, BC, Canada (378 books) | Goodreads
This month I read 17 books, bringing my yearly total to 31 books so far! My Top 3 Books were hard to choose because I had so many 5-star reads this month, but I did indeed choose three which are starred below in the official list:
⭐️ Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N. Scott Momaday
🎨 The Art of Faery by David Riché
🧧 Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
🧡 Blood Orange by Yaffa As
🔭 Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
🍄 The Mushroom Garden by Adam Oehlers
⭐️ Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
🍃 Leaf Litter by Jarod K. Anderson
🏔️ Think Like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold
⭐️ What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
🌏 All Art is Ecological by Timothy Morton
🎲 The Last Session Vol. 1: Roll for Initiative by Jasmine Walls, Dozerdraws, and Micha Myers
🧚 The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
🐸 Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
💤 The Gargoyle by Garry Kilworth and Dan Williams
☀️ Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl
💟 The Death of Sitting Bear: New and Selected Poems by N. Scott Momaday
1. El arte de la guerra - Sun Tzu
2. Meditaciones - Marco Aurelio
3. Hábitos atómicos - James Clear
4. Inteligencia emocional - Daniel Goleman
5. Cómo ganar amigos e influir sobre las personas - Dale Carnegie