#book overview

[second-wolf]

Sooo, I was gonna make this blog about the book I’m writing, and then I just… didn’t.

Anyways, here is information on the book I’m writing!

Side note: This book is in it's early stages of development so take a decent number of names, character description, and places with a grain of salt, as they may be subject to change. I will try to update them as the book develops.

Themes!

The main theme of my as of yet unnamed book is all about how we can process the world around us, especially when issues arise. A lot of the themes are somewhat personal, as I first conceived the main idea of this book during a fairly tumultuous time in my life.

The main idea is that there is no one way to work through issues. Even if one idea may work the best, one tool in your tool belt can only take you so far. A hammer won’t screw something together like a drill.

It also has a few minor themes of dealing with chronic issues or disabilities, but since this is a fantasy novel, of course the disabilities are kind of superpowers. They do have their moments where it’s anything but though.

Magic System!

The magic system is fairly simple in all regards. In the broad strokes we have:

Molders- Basically alchemy. They can change the shape or material of anything they touch so long as they are aware of what the material is made of. The higher their understanding of what they are molding, the easier it is for them to mold it. One drawback though is organic material is usually fairly hard to shape, mostly things like food or anything capable of sustaining life, mostly because its fairly complex chemically.

Adapters- Kind of similar to Molders. They can change the shape of stuff, but only metals, and it has to be absorbed into their body first. How easily they can essentially shapeshift using the metals depends on the metal's softness, like gold is one of the easier ones to use because its fairly soft, whereas tungsten is one of the harder ones.

Enforcers- They can boost their strength, speed or durability by up to a total of 100%, with that 100% being equal to around 10x what their current body strength can be able to handle. The only drawback is that they have to be mindful of how quickly they boost their 'stats' and how they divvy up that 100%, like if your strength is suddenly 10x more powerful than normal, you might break your leg by taking a step, so maybe balance it out with a durability boost too, because although you'd be weaker, you'd be tougher.

Illusionist- maybe the most broken of the four abilities, idk. They are able to create any sort of hallucinations they want, so long as they can clearly imagine it. Depending on the skill level it could range from crappy visual hallucinations to a full on sensory nightmare, affecting all five senses. Granted, the more complicated the illusion the greater the mental toll it take on the user, which can lead to things like headaches or even brain bleeds if one pushes themselves too far. Also, when it comes to making illusory sensations, its hard to make sensations that one has not directly experienced.

Characters!

Eli/Elijah- the main character

He’s around 16 or 17, and grew up in not quite a negligent home, but it wasn’t very loving either. His mom was mostly working as a kid and his dad was always too tired to do much. He also never had much luck with friends either, as they always found him odd or annoying given that he almost was always reading rather than playing or hanging out with everyone else.

Tobi- my favorite

Tobi is trauma incarnate. He grew up in an underground lab and was the product of human experimentation, which in this case was more of a “mess around to keep our funding but it actually worked” kinda way. Tobi is blind, because he has no eyes. He still can see, kind of. He’s more able to ‘sense’ than see, and more of the different materials that are around him than anything like color or light. He also has a nigh crippling fear of crowds and major trust issues, mostly from growing up in an underground lab. He also has horns, because this is my book and I can do whatever fantasy bs I want. Oh also he’s like 12 or 13.

Sylvana- the sassy lady

Sylvana is a noble, kinda, from the wealthiest nation. The reason it’s kinda is that the society is a strict meritocracy, where someone’s skill in adapting (one of the magic macguffin powers) determines one’s status in society. She’s the mc’s love interest too. She’s around the same age as Eli. She has a very sharp tongue and is extremely skilled, given her father is one of the most powerful people in their country. I haven’t quite fleshed out her character more than this, as this book is still in fairly early stages.

Ollie/Oliver- big buff boi

Oliver is Australian. But like. Caricature Australian. He’s really buff and strong but also very wholesome and optimistic, sometimes borderline toxic optimism. He’s kind of the reigning champion fighter of his country, but only in his age group, which is everyone under 20 (he’s 19). His mother was the one who trained him to fight, and also schools the others in fighting.

Artun- The old cranky lady

She doesn't really show up till more towards the end, but she basically acts as the mom of the group for the final stretch. To her, the entire group are a bunch of children who have seen way too much, even just that they got to her door, as she lives in a very remote place. She is about to throw hands with everyone who traumatized her kids.

King Greed the Avaricious- the antagonist

He is literally greed personified. His kingdom has been in shambles for hundreds of years and he wants everything. Not even for the good of his people, he just wants what everyone else has to the point they get as poor as he *thinks* he is (he actually is rather rich, but not to him).

Setting!

The world the main story takes place in is called Kordra, an unusual landmass, as it looks very similar to a compass. It has four main countries.

Aur- A golden country with massive amounts of wealth and influence, as it provides food to most other countries, but is a heavy meritocracy based on one's Adapter abilities, even to the point of a noble title not being handed down simply because one isn't skilled enough.

Ruin- Capitalism if it was mixed with the storyline of Fallout with a hint of the Lorax. It was the most prosperous nation for a long time, with it's Molders able to make piles of dirt into pure gold, however this made the leaders of Ruin very greedy and shortsighted, and they ended up using up all of their natural resources and nearly starving their people as they couldn't just transmute food into existence. As such the old kingdom fell till not even it's name remained, hence it now being called Ruin, with only the capital of Matus still standing.

Enta- Basically Australia. Its a mostly desert climate where everything is deadly and you're either crazy or a criminal to live there. It's very survival of the fittest, but not in the way Aur is.

The Hallowed Hollow- Not many know much about it. The people there used their illusory powers to keep up a massive misty illusion that confuses anyone who walks into the forest, to the point they either luck into the exit or starve trying to find it. The people there are very unsure of the outside world, as several decades before the story, an extermination was carried out against them by Ruin, thinking that they may have been hiding some sort of treasures inside.

Here's a map for the visual learners:

Plot!

Finally, the fun part.

The plot of this as-of-yet-unnamed-book is fairly simple in terms of basic structure. Eli goes into the otherworld, meets friends, gets traumatized, gets healing, happy ending.

I don't want to spoil a lot of the story, as I am trying to make it into an actual book, however I will divulge a bit.

Eli starts in Matus, having freshly fallen from the sky, somehow, still working on that, and gets shipped to that lab that Tobi is held at, and they spend many months there before breaking out, basically brothers at this point. Then they go to Aur, then Enta, then HH, and then kick the kings ass somehow. This book is very in it's early stages and so I only wanna give out the barebones, so a lot of it is still a TBD.

I hope you stick around to see the progress, as I'll probably be asking for feedback to see where things can be changed. I do welcome feedback on any of this, but just please be respectful, as this is also a very personal story for me. Thank you!!

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers #booklr #books #book overview #oc #original character #original story #ocs #original characters

[mind-and-body-style]

Who Gets What and Why "by Alvin E. Roth" - Complete Book Overview

Who Gets What and Why Books Synopsis “Who Gets What and Why” by Alvin E. Roth is an illuminating exploration of market design and the science of matching markets. Roth, a Nobel laureate in economics, delves into the intricate mechanisms that determine how resources, opportunities, and individuals are allocated in various markets, from school choice and kidney transplants to the labor market.…

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#Alvin Roth #Book Overview #books about ecommerce #books about economics for beginners #Economics Book #economybooks about economics and finance #Market Design #Matching Markets #Nobel Laureate #Roth’s Work

[leroibobo]

when the homes in the depopulated palestinian village of lifta were originally built is impossible to tell and most likely varies from house to house. the area's been known since ancient times, including having been written about in the hebrew bible. it's retained multiple different names throughout history - lifta by romans, nephto by byzantines, clepsta by crusaders, then lifta again by arabs. in more recent times, the area saw battle in the early 19th century, when it saw a peasant's revolt against egyptian conscription and taxation policies. (egyptian-ottoman ruler muhammad ali had attempted to become independent from the ottoman empire, and sought to use the area of "greater syria" which palestine was apart of as a buffer state.)

the village was predominantly muslim with a mosque, a maqām for local sage shaykh badr, a few shops, a social club, two coffee houses, and an elementary school which opened in 1945. its economy was based in farming - being a village of jerusalem, farmers would sell their produce in the city's markets. an olive press which remains in the village gives evidence to one of the most important crops its residents farmed. the historically wealthy village was known for its intricate embroidery and sewing, particularly of thob ghabani bridal dresses, which attracted buyers from across the levant.

lifta also represents one of the few palestinian villages in which the structures weren't totally or mostly decimated during the 1948 nakba. 60 of the 450 original houses remain intact. from zochrot's entry on lifta:

israel's absentee property law of 1950 permits the state to expropriate land and assets left behind, and denies palestinians the right to return to old homes or to reclaim their property. it's estimated that there's around 400,000 descendants of the village's original refugee population dispersed in east jerusalem, the west bank, jordan, and the palestinian diaspora.

like many depopulated palestinian houses, some of those in lifta were initially used to settle predominantly mizrahi immigrants and refugees, in this case 300 jewish families from yemen and kurdistan. the houses weren't registered in their names, and the area generally saw poor infrastructure and no resources including water and electricity provided by the government. most left in the early 1970s as a part of a compensation program to move out people who'd been settled in depopulated palestinian houses - if they didn't, they were referred to as "squatters" and evicted. (holes were even drilled in the roofs of evacuated buildings to make them less habitable). the 13 families which remain there today only managed to do so because they lived close to the edge of the village.

in 1987, the israeli nature reserves authority planned to restore the "long-abandoned village" and turn it into a natural history center which would "stress the jewish roots of the site", but nothing came of it. several more government proposals on what to do with the land had been brought up since then. this culminated in in 2021 when the israel land administration announced without informing the jerusalem municipal authorities that it issued a tender for the construction of a luxury neighborhood on the village's ruins, consisting of 259 villas, a hotel, and a mall. since 2023, they've agreed to shelve and "rethink" these plans after widespread objection.

the reasons for the objections varied significantly between the opposing israeli politicians - who see the village as an exemplar of cultural heritage and "frozen in time" model of palestinian villages before 1948 - and palestinians - who largely see the village as a witness of the nakba and a symbol of hope for their return. lifta is currently listed by unesco as a potential world heritage site, a designation netanyahu has threatened to remove several times.

many palestinians who are descendent from its former residents still live nearby. like with many other depopulated palestinian villages, they've never ceased to visit, organize tours of the village, and advocate for its preservation.

#palestine #info #nakba #my posts #the dresses link isnt specific to lifta thobs but provides a good overview #i couldn't find anything online abt lifta's embroidery but some of the book pdfs on palestinian costume i reblogged a while ago have info

[communistkenobi]

actually one thing that has been very elucidating while reading academic scholarship on anti-vaxx movements post-Covid is that a lot of seemingly “apolitical” or non-fascist participation in anti-vaxx and vaccine skeptical protests/demonstrations/social media activity is the result of decades of neoliberal governance - everyone is a ‘critical consumer citizen,’ a subjectivity that produces a public who is deeply invested in ‘shopping for alternatives’ and ‘getting the best deal,’ meaning that mass vaccination programs and mandates, even when universal and socialised, are viewed with suspicion by the public. These people are then primed to listen to the fascists who lurk among these movements, even if they’re a minority. I think one of the larger, more devastating takeaways of the pandemic is that our current situation in North America - low vaccination rates, high infection rates, lots of Covid variants - is the direct result of decades-long neoliberal projects to gut public infrastructure and turn everything into a privatised consumer product. Public goods like universal vaccination programs are therefore seen not as such but as authoritarian, anti-competitive disruptions of a free and open marketplace. To call it a PR disaster would be massively underselling it, but the public appears to have disappeared, replaced instead with an infinite mass of individuals in a market who all have to come to their own decisions about every aspect of their life, even at the cost of everyone around them. what a miserable place we’re in

#book club #reading Russell 2023’s Pox Populi article #I disagree with a lot of the language but he has a really good overview of the literature on anti-vaxx sentiment #again we see how neoliberalism aids and abets the fascist project

[difeisheng]

so presenting at friend group powerpoint night in a hijacked lecture hall went well

#I TALKED FOR FIFTY MINUTES HELP #that's a full university lecture #and i really only covered a very quick speedrun of the main book series + tibetan sea flower + sha hai #and a general overview of how the live action adaptations work #is this the real life #dmbj #ashton originals

[manuscripts-dontburn]

#not completely in order for aesthetic reasons #but these are all wonderful #booklr #book lists #recommended #2023 overview

[stuckinapril]

i love anthologies. anthologies are so sexy

#in an alternate world where im an english lit major the norton anthology of english lit is my bible #it's by no means an exhaustive overview but i really love how everything is in its neat timeline #and you get a general vibe for how literature was back then as opposed to just going in blind. u see how everything influences everything #a major (maybe a bit irrational?) fear i have is i come out of a book w superficial understanding #and while that has contributed to unfortunate reading slumps i do also like this trait of me #where i am actually focused on giving a book/period of time the respect it deserves vs just reading it flippantly #i like doing my silly little pre-read of a period of time/author before jumping into it #i don't do pre-reads for everything but there are books where i find it necessary to prime my brain for absorbing them #and anthologies are good for that #and they're also a good resource for investigating authors whose vibe sits right w u. #or for knowing the general quaintessential authors of a certain genre of lit #i also love poetry anthologies #the commentary comparing/contrasting certain authors is also rly interesting to me . ok i'll shut up now #p

[pencilofawesomeness]

What is Twisted Wonderland and how would you sell someone on it?

Ohoho. Ohohohoho. Anon. You have activated my trap card >:D

(I'm about to be soooo annoying/unhinged and I'm sorry. I'm not.)

Alright, so:

Twisted Wonderland is a Disney mobile game made in Japan and co-produced by Aniplex. (Yes, that Aniplex.) I'm not here to sell you on the game, so much as the story, but it is a sort of story-book rpg with turned based fights and rhythm games, where you build character units from a gacha pull. As far as gameplay goes, it's very simple, and most of the emphasis lies on the characters and the story. And it's wonderful.

The on-the-box description of this game doesn't do it justice, per se, but that might be because Disney has a little bit of influence on it and they suck at knowing who their target audience is. It is about a high school based on classic Disney villains—but no, not in the way you're thinking, because I once made that mistake too. It is not a villain school. Rather, the world of Twisted Wonderland is its own entity, with characters built as sort of nods or foils to classic Disney characters. The world itself is somewhat built with these films as its past, and history has become so twisted (ha) that modern society views some of these classic villains as the heroes or supporting characters of their stories, and respect them as The Great Seven. (The seven in question being the Queen of Hearts, Scar, Ursula, Jafar, the Evil/Raven Queen, Hades, and Maleficent. None of them are remembered by name, though.)

The game takes place in the modern era, a society with both technology and magic. Specifically, it takes place in a magic high school called Night Raven College, an all-boys dormitory prep school where the only requirement to get in is a magic mirror that peers into your soul and determines whether or not you can a) do magic and b) kin the Great Seven. And, of course, the player character is a regular-ass human who gets isekai'd in and gets stuck with a talking magic cat direbeast named Grim.

Now. That is the general synopsis. I, on the other hand, affectionately call this the Mental Breakdown game.

See, here's the kicker. The magic system is pretty nifty; while it's functions as a standard magic-is-magic sort of soft system, it has ✨consequences✨

Magic has this byproduct called blot. It's this icky stuff that builds up when you a) use too much magic and/or b) are emotionally distressed. But less so in a "I'm panicked right now" sort of way and more so in a "I have chronic depression and/or anxiety" sort of way. And, when a mage is powerful enough, and sad boi enough, and then goes and uses way too much magic and sad boi juice in one sitting, this amazing phenomenon occurs called "overblot"—which is pretty much a super-powered evil form that turns the mage into the darkest form of themselves and then uses magic until they die.

Naturally, this happens in the game. A lot. The formula is pretty much that each "book" of the story, there is an overblot. One for each of the seven dorms, which are based off of the seven villains/the movies they come from. (And "based on" is pretty loose. Yes you can see the similarities, but these are dumb teenage boys with their own hopes and aspirations, and, sometimes, the game completely lies to you about what character they emulate the most. The guy who's Jafar? Well yes but he's actually just a really stressed out Genie stand in. The Hades guy? Whoops that's Meg. Is that a card soldier or the White Rabbit? Doesn't matter, he's got problems.)

The characters are so well written. I could gush about them forever, and they are the driving points of this plot and it means everything to me. They are some of the most traumatized and messed up individuals, but also, they are dumb teenage boys who do dumb teenage boys things. It is all incredibly well balanced and startlingly realistic for a game that amounts to beating the emotional constipation around people. Mostly because it cannot be beat out of them. The blot can, but they have to deal with their emotions with their own two hands, with varying levels of success.

And the shenanigans!!!! Oh, the shenanigans. I call this the Emotional Trauma game but I have once laughed so hard someone heard me through the floor. It's not all doom and gloom for sure. Sometimes you're watching your friend fall apart because his toxic mother instilled debilitating perfectionism and slowly start making enemies of everyone and sometimes you're sending three of the most gremlin students plus one cinnamon roll to infiltrate a gala that a bunch of weather fairies are throwing in the greenhouse because they stole your temperature regulating magestone to be shiny jewelry and you want it to stop snowing inside your dorm room. And sometimes you can have the exact same character who experienced losing his little brother right in front of him gush about a magical girl sledding anime and all of his gacha games. It is the best of both worlds.

And, that's not all! No, no. We get amazing character interactions. Not just pre-determined friend group interactions, but also random interactions. Yana Toboso (the writer/artist) really likes to stick names in a jar sometimes and make them interact and it is the best thing ever. Every single one of these characters I hold in my hands. Every single one of them gets to have their moment to shine. You can emotionally invest in all of them and be rewarded for it.

The game itself is free and pretty easy to get into. There's not really a bad power creep so you can get through it with what you got. Of course the fun part of collecting cards is that there are stories attached to them that you can watch, and those are also sources of joy. (And it's well documented, so you can find things online pretty easily to catch up and see more.)

I just think it's neat. (Read: I accidentally became wholly obsessed with this game and its characters and they are all blorbos to me.)

You should definitely fall into this rabbit hole with me :))) It's so worth it :)))

#twisted wonderland #ask #anon #I could gush about the characters individually but #we would be here all day #anyway I love them all #and this game does a surprisingly good job with mental illness and neurodivergency #despite never naming any of it #it's pretty obvious though #even if not to the character themselves all the time #also this game is absolutely gut wrenching in the most positive way #it accidentally made me reconsider my entire life and well being #when I saw a little too much of myself in one of the characters overblotting #like WHOOPS I see the issue #but that's a me thing #anyway its very good and I can easily be enabled into blabbing about it more #this is just a very general overview really #and if that's not enough then know that in the first book #I character once says “no I am not going to put down the shovel I am still DIGGING” #and that's when I knew this was going to be fun #and then the end of the book I hear the VA of Tanjiro have a full cry and I knew this was going to consume me #is a very good story and a fun lil game

[markantonys]

one of my earliest WOT book-related memories is reading the brief wikipedia summaries for each book and getting to one of the slog books that mentioned "perrin continues searching for his wife" and i thought "damn, he still hasn't found her yet?" little did i know

#i was about to defend myself and say it was only the book jacket blurb summaries and not full spoiler summaries #but i just looked at a couple again and no yeah it's the full spoiler summaries that are on wikipedia djkjfg #however all i had for context was 1 season of the show (possibly less i forget when during s1's airing i read all this) #so these summaries were literally almost 100% incomprehensible to me i absorbed basically no information at all #i think i just kinda skimmed them anyway didn't read them super closely (because they were incomprehensible to me) #i also remember first reading the general series overview on wikipedia and just being like 'what the fuck does any of this mean????' #wot is a great series for being protected from spoilers by pure dint of the fact that they just don't make any sense without context! #wot #wot book spoilers

[the-mononoke-facade]

Waaaaaaait if I'm understanding this setup right it might have some major implications for how Kusu moves through the world holy shit

#mononoke #mononoke book #mononoke kusuriuri #mononoke medicine vendor #so i should have this story up in another hour or two assuming my range extender doesnt decide to be a piece of shit again today #but going through and putting this together and it occurs to me that this sugoroku board and him flitting across it like what if thats the #way he kind of keeps tabs on mononoke and like? just some sort of big world and fate overview thing right? #like we've been talking on discord trying to figure out whether he actually like travels the physical world or if he just kinda #poofs into existence #wherever it is he needs to be to act #this thought is half-formed and im gonna get back to work and let it simmer on the back burner for a bit but damn the idea is idea-ing #(and i really really need to figure out just how canon this book is intended to be in the grand scheme of things but thats another thing)

[magic-swords-art]

About my worldbuilding: the Tega'si

The Tega’si are a species of aliens from the planet Tega. Tega is almost completely covered on water, and Tega even means “water”—“Tega’si” means “from the water.” Tega’si live both on land and underwater, and as a result have both gills and lungs and have better night vision than humans. A lot of what’s edible to Tega’si on Tega is harmful to humans, but Tega’si cannot have dairy—they’re all lactose intolerant.

Some more interesting things about them: Tega'si are born with no legs and no working lungs. Instead, they have a tail and must be kept underwater until their lungs fully develop around 1 year of age. (They can be taken out of water for short periods of time). Their legs also grow in around the same time, and their tail continues to shrink until they reach anywhere from 8-13, and it drops off. They live around the same length as humans. 

Some of them are also born with markings--like these jellyfish rings.

They also have the possibility to develop magic, either aethermancy (light magic) or umbromancy (shadow magic). Each type of magic has their own subset of abilities, which magic users can choose which ones they specialize in—or dip a little into them all! (I'd talk more about the magic system, but that would take it's own post)

#hooray ! #i am still worldbuilding on the cultures and stuff but here's a basic overview of them and how they work #fish aliens for the win #for future reference i'm going to start tagging stuff with these ocs and stuff related as “wip: cos” #this is all part of a book series i plan to write #which is why i can be vague about it and my ocs... #wip: cos #not art #okay it DOES have art but it's not an art post exactly

[essektheylyss]

I JINXED MYSELF I opened a book I wanted to read and then my third course site got published and there's an optional book to read THERE AS WELL THAT SOUNDS SUPER INTERESTING THAT WOULD PROBABLY GO REALLY WELL IN TANDEM WITH MY CURRENT BOOK, FUCK

#WHY DO I HAVE A JOBBBBB MY JOB SHOULD BE TO READ FASCINATING BOOKS ABOUT ART CULTURE AND OWNERSHIP #FUCK #anyway I am gonna read it lmao #it's a book on the history of copyright :3 #my courses this quarter SLAP ngl #honestly I have a great time in school cuz I literally only take courses that sound fascinating but like. #also I do think most things sound fascinating so that is in my favor here #I do think my two courses that aren't programming are gonna go VERY well in tandem anyway so #I do not do all of the optional readings #but I always do the optional book reading cuz usually it's like 'here's a much larger subject overview' which I find very helpful #and if it's an open source book and I can just download it and hold onto it for later? even better #(this one is available on jstor. privilege and property ed. by deazley et al. like if you want it)

[spurgie-cousin]

ok i know i've been talking about Robyn a lot lol but I'm prepping for a deep dive video on her and I think I've finally figured her out:

Her mom was the secondary wife from the time she was 8 or 9, and secondary in the sense that her (step)dad didn't even claim her mom's family publicly. Likely under the guise of "I can't be public about being a polygamist or they'll throw me in jail" (which has been used to justify a lot of abuse in the fundie mormon community).

Anyway so she grew up being part of the less important family, which from everything I've seen *so far* is something she seems to justify publicly. But something like that has gotta do a number on anyone right, like imagine your dad not publicly acknowledging you until you're in your 30s (she was actually the exact age I am now)? Her stepfather though, who she considers her dad, was very very conservative and from everything I can see, he really drilled it into her head that polygamy was the most holy way to go, and that his actions were for the good of the entire family.

So like Christine has pointed out, she has never actually lived in a plural marriage setting where multiple moms and kids have to negotiate every day life, and that apparently wasn't something she was interested in learning or that Kody required of her when she married him. Despite that, she is an adamant advocate for plural marriage and basically all evidence points to the fact that she really does want to be considered a sister wife.

And lastly (and I say this objectively not hatefully) Robyn is a compulsive liar. She twists details about the past to fit a certain narrative in her head and this may be a hot take, but I don't really think she does it consciously or to be *knowingly* manipulative. Like in the last episode, she tells a blatant lie about Kody not wearing the gold ring Meri gave him when they first started dating (if you don't know that story let me know bc OOF is it a doozy). There's thousands of hours of video that proves her wrong, but if the ring story is true the way Meri, Christine, and Janelle tell it, the narrative of her not being responsible for the tremendous shift in the family dynamic can't be true.

So I really think her trauma response to her upbringing was to ignore, suppress, and reframe a situation until it resembles something that is not so painful, just like she did with her childhood. That's not to justify her behavior because as adults, it's our responsibility to be introspective and heal ourselves as much as we can, but I don't know why else someone would lie so often and so blatantly when they can be so easily proven wrong. Lying is like taking a Tylenol for a headache if the headache is painful truths about her life that she can't reconcile.

I think she really did want to live polygamy but the part of her she suppresses was definitely going to take advantage of any opportunity she got to be the primary wife. And not just for ego reasons, but maybe to avoid some of the pain her mother experienced. Almost like she was owed it bc of her past, and I think she dismisses the other wives legitimate concerns because her mom was "happy" and devoted to her husband and she had it way worse.

Anyway sorry to rant about Robyn Brown on a Tuesday lol but I'm mostly just thinking out loud and trying to organize my thoughts for my deep dive. If you have any Robyn thoughts or lesser known stories/pieces of info let me know‼️‼️😊

#i have a secondhand version of their book coming which I'm excited to reread #maybe when the season ends I'll try to go back to book overviews idk i feel like it'll be easier in short format #robyn brown #cult book club

[jakeperalta]

in hindsight it is amazing that I managed to get two literature degrees because I am terrible at remembering any details of any book I read

#all the rwrb movie stuff is making me realise i straight up do not remember anything #people being like 'omg the __ scene!' or 'what about __' and nothing is even ringing a bell #admittedly it's been like 3.5 years since i read it but still i should be able to remember more than just a vague overview of the concept 😭 #the same goes for non fiction which is frustrating because it means i forget the cool facts i learn #the thing is i clearly have the ability to retain information from a book and think in depth about it #my brain just opts not to whenever it's not being graded i guess #talking

[alliluyevas]

I've been reading the newly released American Zion: A New History of Mormonism by Benjamin Park, which I would definitely recommend. I had a bit of a hard time connecting with it at first because it's a historical overview and especially when it comes to 19th century Mormon history I already had read about most of what it covers in more depth, but a) I think the target audience of this book is someone with less historical knowledge about Mormonism than I have b) I think it does provide a very solid and nuanced overview of the material for that person who is not willing or able to read 20 different books about 19th century Mormonism c) now that we're in the 20th century, which overall I know much less about in terms of Mormon history, a lot of this is new to me or has details or analysis I didn't know.

#I'm gonna make my mom read it I think she would enjoy and it's much more accessible for people who are interested in history and religion #but not committed to the type of deep dives ive been doing #and I do think this book very much fills a niche that didn't really exist previously #for a good broad overview that is well researched and also not intended to be explicitly faith promoting #bc there are definitely church produced overview mormon histories but...i find history that is meant to be explicitly faith promoting is #often lacking to say the least

[yotd2009]

oh yeah. the reason why i decided to reread tbhk (and thus it was able to hit me like a truck this time around) was actually not bc of mitsukou going canon but actually bc i maybe accidentally started a tbhk book club w my kids at work and wanted to check the contents of it justttt in case before i put the books in their hands

#tl;dr i have this one 4th grade boy who's a total weeb and knows that i'm the only one in this town who's more into japanese media than him #so he pesters me abt it every time he sees me. and the thing abt this kid is that he gets bored easily and if he does he turns into a #complete menace. now a couple weeks ago. he shows up at the program w one piece volume one and spends the entire time he's there peacefully #reading and not causing any problems on purpose. my coworker owen (the one who climbed onto the roof) and i were shocked and in awe of how #peaceful he was being and came to the conclusion that he NEEDS to have a manga volume in his hands at all times. few minutes later. #he finishes reading and isn't bored yet so he decides to go talk to me abt manga. specifically he starts pestering me abt what shonen i've #read despite the fact that i am a shoujo reader and told him that. but he knows i've read kuroshitsuji bc he previously asked me abt what #the worst anime i've ever watched is and i will never not take an excuse to drag the adaptation. and he figures that if i've read kuro i've #probably read more. and so i mention tbhk and he asks more abt it bc of the name involving toilets and him being a 4th grade boy so i give #brief overview and he wants to read it. and i come up with a scheme to make him peaceful AND to give him something to talk to me abt which #isn't 'i know you've read more shonen manga' 'let me gacha on your phone' or 'i saw an ad for rent a gf. thought it was lame. and now want #you to tell me how it sucks bc i assume you know everything abt every animanga ever' (<does unfortunately know too much abt rent a gf bc i' #a bit of a nosy bastard and watched the mother's basement video). so i offered to bring it in bc i own physicals of the whole series and of #as previously mentioned. gave it a quick reread in advance just in case. and got hit by it. hard. i love you tbhk almost as much as i love #when ppl get into things through me. honestly i think getting to live vicariously through him might be one of the main reasons it got me #this time around and not as much the first time (still loved it the first time though). flash forward a little while. one of the 3rd grade #girls is like. really into reading. and also macabre things. like ghosts. and she has two books from the school library. and has had the #same two books from the school library for over a week. she reads quickly and finished them both in under a day and is now bored out of her #mind rereading them. she asks to read the books i've been letting the other kid read. now there are two of them #romeo.txt