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hirooparikh · 6 months

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હારનું માટલું ફોડો મારા પર :- એક પનોતી :~ a blog by હિરેન પરીખ

बुरी दशा का समय , मुसीबत और बुरा वक्त , बुरा आदमी , बुरा विचार , बुरा स्थल =पनौती આમ તો આ વિષય ઘણો જ કઢીન છે સમજવા અને વિચારવા માટે . એમા વળી આજે એના પર બે શબ્દો લખવા એ તો એનાથી પણ વધારે કપરુ અને અત્યંત કઢીન કામ છે . લેખકોની જમાત , writers પણ આ પનોતી શબ્દથી ડરતા થઈ ગયા છે . કાચાપોચા માણસો તો પનોતી શબ્દ બોલવાનું પળે પળે ટાળતા હોય છે , ડરતાં હોય છે , ગભરાતાં હોય છે . હું કાંઈ ડરતો નથી પનોતી થી…

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navakarnatakatimes · 2 years

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Spiritual: ಅಮಾವಾಸ್ಯೆ ಎಂದರೇನು? ಇದು ಶುಭವೋ ಅಶುಭವೋ ? ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ

ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕ್ಷಣ,ಯೋಗ,ಯಶಸ್ಸು ,ಗೌರವ,ನೆಮ್ಮದಿ ಈ ರೀತಿಯ ಆಹ್ಲಾದಕರವಾದ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶಗಳು/ ಸಂದರ್ಭಗಳು ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಬೇಡ ಹೇಳಿ. ನಮಗೆ ಪುಣ್ಯದ ಫಲಬೇಕು ಆದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯಪ್ರದವಾದ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಲು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಹಾಗೆ ಪಾಪದ ಅಶುಭ ಫಲಬೇಡ ಆದರೆ ಪಾಪದ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿಬಿಡುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಕಾರ್ಯಮಾಡಲು ಯೋಗ್ಯವಾದ ಕಾಲವನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿರಿಯರು ಕಾರಣ ಸಹಿತವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಆಗ ಲೌಕಿಕವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ಅಷ್ಟಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆದಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಇಂದಿಗನುಗುಣವಾದ ವೈಜ್ಞಾನಿಕ ಕಾರಣವನ್ನು ಅವರು ನೀಡಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಂದ…

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#Amavasya #auspicious #inauspicious #purana #spiritual #Spirituality

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obstinaterixatrix · 1 year

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I know there’s like cultural reasons involved etc but I’ve always thought the concept of naming a child ‘dolores’ was really funny. imagine naming your kid misery.

#my ramblings #speaking of inauspicious names

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shrikeseams · 9 months

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Elves definitely assign their children some kind of patron constellation based on the time and day of their birth and/or begetting, right? Not in a horoscope way so much as a 'Varda's stars watch over everyone' way? Like a patron Saint or guardian angel type of belief.

(Funny version: this stems from cuivienen, and the first varda hears of it is like. Ingwe eagerly asking to meet his patron star, and Varda has to scramble to figure out 1. What he's talking about and 2. If she can (or should) bring said system into being somehow.)

#Tolkien #San shoots the breeze #I feel like a birth under sunlight would be considered (mildly) inauspicious #The child's 'correct' constellation would be carefully calculated #And the child 'introduced' to its light at the earliest opportunity

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marzipanandminutiae · 5 months

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Okay but that vampire story sounds awesome

Thanks!

It was this whole thing where Carmilla thought Laura had a normal life and died after the events of the novel- which were Laura's cover story after helping her escape the vampire hunters -and then found proof that she in fact had not. Leading to this bizarre international scavenger hunt, the first stop on which was a visit to the Queen of the Prospect Coven of Brooklyn- namely, Charlotte Canda.

(I was living in Brooklyn at the time, walking distance from Green-Wood Cemetery where Charlotte's buried.)

There was going to be a part later where Laura turned out to be a vampire now, but kind of unhinged because of trauma involved in how she was turned, so she's like...a vampire crime boss. Planting the clues herself and semi-tormenting Carmilla with the idea that someone who murdered her (Laura) years ago is the one leaving them. It was this whole Thing.

I should revisit that story sometime actually

#ask #inauspicious-augury #writing

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knights-unwelcommentary · 9 months

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I really think the beta trolls were right to kill their denizens, specially considering how every deal with them turned out

Don't ever strike bargains with snakes and bullies, specially if you're in a creation myth

#homestuck #we still don't even know what the fallout of the last deal with echidna's gonna be #but the deal that gave Doc Scratch dominion over the troll planet is a very inauspicious precedent

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imminent-danger-came · 11 months

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So, I love the Eldritch Abomination MK TheoryTM. Really hope they are going for something like that. I do wonder, though, if they'll do this by making MK secretly one of the other celestial monkies. There are two appart from Wukong and Macaque mentioned in JTTW, though not much is said beyond "They exist, they are called this and can do that." The one I am thinking of is the Long Armed Gibbon, who's said to be able to move the sun and moon. The show does cut out to space a lot when MK does something big with his powers.

“The first,” said Tathagata, “is the Stone Monkey of Numinous Wisdom, who knows transformations, recognizes the seasons, discerns the advantages of earth, and is able to alter the course of planets and stars. The second is the Red-Buttocked Horse Monkey, who has knowledge of yin and yang, understands human affairs, is adept in its daily life and able to avoid death and lengthen its life. The third is the Tongbi Gibbon, who can seize the sun and the moon, shorten a thousand mountains, distinguish the auspicious from the inauspicious, and manipulate planets and stars. The fourth is the Six-Eared Macaque who has a sensitive ear, discernment of fundamental principles, knowledge of past and future, and comprehension of all things. These four kinds of monkeys are not classified in the ten categories [of life], nor are they contained in the names between Heaven and Earth.” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 115).

(A Quick Study of the Four Celestial Primates from Journey to the West)

EAMK Theory™ has the potential to be applied in a lot of different ways, which is part of the reason I'm so fond of it! Maybe MK is a celestial primate, maybe he's something else, who knows!

But, say MK was originally a celestial primate...

Out of the 2 other primates, the Long Armed Gibbon definitely feels the most applicable to MK:

seizing the sun and moon,

shortening a thousand mountains,

distinguish the auspicious from inauspicious,

and manipulating the planets and stars.

It's also interesting that both the stone monkey and the long armed gibbon are described as "altering the course/manipulating the planets and stars". It's hard to say anything more on the matter because we know so little about the other celestial primates, but in regards to long arms.....

#yes maybe I *am* reaching with that last one what of it #Literally. Who knows. Who knows!#asks #eamk theory #lmk theory #lmk #lmk MK #lego monkie kid #monkie kid #really had a brain blast with the ''distinguish the auspicious from inauspicious'' one #LIKE HMMM. THAT IS WHAT MK DOES A LOT ISN'T IT. ''Hey come on it'd be sooo beneficial if we worked together!''

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terpsikeraunos · 1 year

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groundhog day is modern augury

#the omens are inauspicious this year

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wangsejabin · 1 year

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Chapter 112

These words instantly made Pan'er wake up with a jolt.

What, is he planning to appoint a crown prince?

When the emperor ascends to the throne, apart from sealing the palace, one of the most important things he should consider is the creation of a crown prince.

After all, the crown prince is the foundation of the state, and most people who become emperor are not young, and most of them have already had sons, and more than one. It is a common belief that many sons are a blessing, but if you look at the royal family, you can see that sometimes this is not always true.

As the sons grow older, they are surrounded by more and more subordinates, tangible and intangible, subconscious and subconscious, and everyone is betting on them. Can the family prosper for another hundred years? Who doesn't want to last forever?

In her previous life, at first she never dared to think that Zong Yue could sit in the emperor's seat, after all, the crown prince's position was as secure as a mountain. It was only later, when there was a hint of it, and she found out that Zong Yue also had that kind of mind, that she gradually moved her mind.

But before that, that is, before Zong Cong mentioned it, she had not thought about it at all, and probably subconsciously felt that many things had changed in this life, so she did not think about it. She thought that Zong Yue was still young and did not need to think about this for the time being, but at this moment, Zong Cong's words made her wake up at once.

How to answer?

Although she and he were now getting to know each other better, and there was a little bit of heart-to-heart between them, and he was willing to talk to her about things that bothered her, these trivial matters were not the same as setting up a crown prince.

The crown prince was too sensitive, especially as she had given birth to the second son, Zong Yue.

So she turned over in his arms and said, "Your Majesty, that's a strange question to ask, I've never been a crown prince, how do I know whether it's good or bad to be one? This should be asked of Your Majesty, weren't you the Crown Prince before?"

"I used to be the crown prince, but a long time ago, I actually didn't want to be the crown prince."

Pan'er fell silent, and Zong Cong did not speak either, falling into memory.

Everyone thought that the crown prince was above all others, the future Emperor, and that he must have been a great success and highly valued. But they did not know that all this was a shackle, an existence that made them walk on thin ice.

The memories of the past, which Zong Cong never wanted to recall, were the days when he carried his mother and himself on his back, the days when he studied hard behind the scenes but pretended to be light-hearted on the surface, the days when he pretended to be generous even when he was angry, the days when he laughed in the face even when he knew that he was up to no good, the days when he had to tense his nerves every day, the days when he forced himself to be thorough and never missed a beat, and the days when he was not able to be a good friend. ......

Therefore, when he saw that Zong Duo seemed to be following his old path, Zong Cong's feelings were very complicated.

If he was in good health, he might have been relieved in his complexity, but he was not in good health and had to compete with Zong Yue.

But he could not blame the child, accuse him of not working too hard, and as for Zong Yue, he was even more innocent, was it a fault that he was smart and good at reading and had a competitive spirit?

Zong Cong could foresee that when the dust had settled, the court would definitely start a heated debate on the crown prince.

What should we do when the time comes?

"Brother Cong you'd better not think too much about it, after all those things have passed, you're now the emperor, I remember you told me before that you had a lot of things to do? You still have so many important big things to do, so why do you need to think about these small things."

Yes, he still had a lot of big things to do.

It must be said that Pan'er was still quite good at comforting, no, diverting, and Zong Cong's attention was soon diverted to his government affairs.

He was lost in thought, his hand stroking her back with one hand, while Pan'er breathed a soft sigh of relief.

It was clearly a cold day, but Empress Chen was very active, asking daily about the progress of the Ning Shou Palace's repairs.

It was the first year of the new emperor's ascension to the throne, so it was particularly significant that the Ning Shou Palace had not been repaired, and Empress Fu could not move out of the Kun Ning Palace.

Two snowstorms in a row meant that repairs had to be suspended.

Empress Chen was anxious but could not say anything on the surface. At the same time, Zong Duo fell ill again and although he was only coughing, he was still not well for half a month, which added fuel to the fire.

This was to be followed by the ceremony of the enthronement of the Empress and the investiture of all the concubines in the Eastern Palace.

After this, they have all become official and rightful ladies, although not yet moved to the palace, but several lower ranking concubines would not be able to be the master of a palace and instead would live under the supervision of a more senior concubine.

Kunning Palace and Jingren Palace is naturally out of the question, one is the empress residence, one is Su Guifei's residence. Su Guifei has always been solitary, and no one was allowed close, she's just favoured like that, it is not possible to get a person to their own palace to share favor. The only thing that remains is the palace of Consort Hu Shufei Zhou Xianfei and others.

At first, when Hu Shufei saw the frequent visits of Qian Guiren and others, she was a little surprised at what they were doing there. But she was always a meat and potatoes kind of person, and she was also a big fan of watching the fun, so she met them.

The two of them were sent away in a rare outburst of anger.

Qian Qiao and the two of them were still a bit aggrieved, so if they didn't want to, why did they have to get so angry? When the concubine Li found out about this, she even went to laugh at them.

"If you don't go to Concubine Su's place and run to Concubine Hu's, you're clearly saying that she's not in favour and needs your help?"

Qian Qiao and the two of them realized that they still had no choice but to go there, otherwise each of the six eastern palaces would be dominated, what if none of them wanted them or if they were given to concubine Li by the Empress?

They went back to Consort Xu, who was very decisive and refused on the grounds that the Fifth Prince had recently been unwell and it was inappropriate for someone to visit him.

After these two incidents, Consort De was not stupid either, so the Sixth County Princess were also a little uncomfortable.

So there were only two concubines left, Li and Zhao.

At this point, concubine Li was so pleased with herself that you didn't want to live in my palace because you didn't like me, so what are you doing here? The door was closed, and the concubine Zhao's place had been very busy lately.

These are all things that Pan'er heard from the people below her, just like listening to a book, and after listening to it,

After hearing this she poured cold water on the situation: "Even the Empress has not moved her palace, where else would the others want to move?

In fact, Pan'er's words proved true, and it was only a few days before the New Year's Eve that Empress Chen finally realised in despair that she would not be able to move this year and would have to stay in the Eastern Palace.

There was no need to think about the congratulations of the first wife, or about being worshipped on the phoenix throne.

On New Year's Eve, Zong Cong hosted a family banquet at Qianqing Palace. There were many people there, including princes and their families, some close relatives, the Grand Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager, several imperial concubines and the ladies of the Eastern Palace.

The atmosphere was very cordial and, although it may have been somewhat of an illusion, at least it proved that the majority of the people had come to terms with the reality of the new emperor's accession to the throne.

After the family feast, Zong Cong led the crowd to the Hall of the Nurtured Heart to visit the emperor.

This New Year's Eve, the Hall of the Nurtured Heart is probably the only place in the entire Forbidden City where there is no festive atmosphere, as the emperor has to recuperate from his illness and naturally needs quiet, especially since the emperor has been ill and cannot speak, his temper is getting worse every day, and the servants are all cautious and downcast as they wait on the sidelines.

The crowd of people dressed in auspicious clothes visiting the Emperor looked particularly sarcastic.

After all, it was not easy for the new emperor to think of the emperor at this point in his life, and even if he did, he was still being filial.

It was the emperor who seemed unusually unsettled, his mouth ahhhhh and not knowing what he was saying, but no one paid any attention to this.

The only one who took advantage of the Emperor's performance was the Prince of Qi, who made a fuss, reprimanding his lackeys for not serving him well, and saying that Zong Cong was treating the Emperor with apparent filial piety, but in fact he was secretly having people sparring with him, otherwise the Emperor would have behaved like this?

But no one believed him, not to mention the fact that so many imperial concubines were present and had to queue up every day to attend to their illnesses. It was Pan'er's idea for Zong Cong to attend to his illness, but it was a lie to avoid suspicion. The Prince of Qi is being unreasonable, and at the same time, he is at the end of his rope.

After all, if he really had a solution for Zong Cong, why would he make a fuss over such a trivial matter? There were many clansmen present, and they all had their own opinions.

On the first day of the first month, the new emperor paid homage to his ancestors at the Imperial Temple, and announced the change of the reign name to Jianying.

At the same time, the Kunning Palace was also bustling with activity.

The Empress Dowager Fu was in the centre, Empress Chen was on the lower left, and the concubines of the new emperor, including Pan'er, were standing on either side.

They were all dressed in gorgeous gowns, and it was difficult for the Home Office to rush so many gowns, but the momentum was really something like a new year.

But it's not a new year, since the fifth day of the first month, Zong Cong opened the seal, Zong Cong was all kinds of big action.

The first thing he did was to tell Empress Chen that her father had been made a marquis.

This is a distinction that only imperial relatives can have, and it is usually added to the shade of the mother's family when the empress is crowned, but it is a lower rank than in the previous life, when it was a dukedom.

Empress Chen was so happy and pleased that when Pan'er went to pay her respects, she could see the joy on her face.

But as a result, Empress Chen was even more anxious to move the palace, and after the first month was over, she was concerned about the repair of the Ning Shou Palace.

In the meantime, the six eastern palaces were also undergoing simple renovations, the only major one being the Jingren Palace, the residence of the princesses and the three southern houses where the imperial sons lived.

In time for March, Zong Duo and Zong Yue moved to the South Third House, and Pan'er made several trips there to see the new paint, new doors and windows, new furniture and furnishings, and she also opened a special storehouse and added a lot of furnishings and other things for Zong Yue.

In April, the Ning Shou Palace was finally repaired.

Empress Chen personally supervised the decoration and furnishings inside, and waited for half a month after everything was finished before carefully mentioning that the Ning Shou Palace had been repaired when she went to the Kun Ning Palace to pay her respects.

Pan'er was present at the time, and now that she is a consort of the new emperor, she naturally cannot be as lazy as before.

The Empress Court was not the only one, but there was still the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, so she could not wait around for the concubines to come to pay their respects, so she gathered at Kunning Palace and paid her respects to Empress Dowager Fu, and then went to Cining Palace to pay her respects to the Grand Empress Dowager at her discretion.

It is not that Empress Dowager Fu is not willing to go, but the Empress Dowager also knows that she is old, every day tossing and turning disgusting, a month only on the first fifteen to come to ask for peace she will not say anything, other times to come to her are too noisy, and over time to go gradually less and less.

Although Empress Chen had already been very particular about the way she spoke, and did not open the door to the princesses, but made a reference to the courtyard where they lived, Pan'er still saw Empress Fu and Nianqiu beside her glance at each other.

The gesture was a little more meaningful.

So the Empress was no ordinary person, Pan'er sighed once more.

It wasn't that Empress Dowager Fu had tasted the hardships of being an empress before, and now she had to pick on Empress Chen. You think that the palace is so big, some of Empress Chen's actions will not fall on deaf ears, watching the repair process of Ning Shou Palace, at best filial obedience, at worst is eager to let Empress Fu move out of Kun Ning Palace.

But it's also true that she, the empress, wants to move into the Kunning Palace in a hurry.

So the hearts of the people are like this, no one is wrong, but it is inadvertently in everyday life that countless conflicts are gathered.

Fortunately, this had nothing to do with her, and Pan'er was sincerely grateful.

Empress Fu didn't delay much and ordered her minions to pack up the next day. She had been Empress for many years and had lived in Kunning Palace for decades, so there was as much stuff as one could imagine.

When Zong Cong heard about this, he even made a special trip, saying that the Ning Shou Palace had just been repaired and that it would be better to wait for the paint inside to dissipate for a while before moving it, as there was no rush anyway.

The Empress Dowager didn't say anything, she just said to move the things over slowly first.

When Zong Cong came out, Nianci told him what had happened yesterday.

He asked Pan'er why she knew.

It was because it happened that she had been recruited to go to Qianqing Palace that day, and Zong Cong had a rare moment of anger in front of her, demonstrating his displeasure with Empress Chen.

He was becoming less and less shy of Pan'er, but Pan'er was anxious. You say he said something bad about the Empress in front of her, should she, as a favoured concubine, to advise, or not advise?

#mtl #yingchong #lmao Empress Chen being so petty about the moving #in real history living in Kunning Palace was actually kind of inauspicious #several empresses committed suicide there #usually they wouldn't actually live there at all #in qing dynasty it was primarily used for wedding nights and other ceremonies #in Ming it was the main residence of the empress and that's about where the author has placed the plot timewise #usually the empress was more like to live yongshou palace

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witchblade · 7 months

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unfortunately one of the funniest groups to ever debut

#we should have sent a team to airLift yeseo out of there like what an inauspicious debut

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brown-little-robin · 9 months

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3 days into the semester and already up til midnight doing homework

#this is an inauspicious start indeed #tomorrow... REST #SHOWER #I WILL be refreshed

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snailmailmp3 · 4 months

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the good news: despite my flight being delayed by almost 24 hours i will probably be able to make it to my first and only class today on time

the bad news: this means that i have to go to that class

#nothing about that class specifically it's literally the first class of the semester #so i have no opinion on it #im just. so tired #if my flight left at its original time #i would've had a relaxing half day of not being in school before classes started #but now i am thrown off. inauspicious beginning to the semester

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obstinaterixatrix · 10 months

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ok I’ve moved my bed into its previous configuration which wakes me up an hour early but doesnt feel as unlucky

#my ramblings #[guy who doesn’t really believe in supernatural stuff] the arrangement of my space was inauspicious and thus misfortune has befallen me

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pentanguine · 4 months

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Favorite Books of 2023

So I didn’t quite get to it in January, but I did finally finish this list!! (And as always, I'm longwinded)

My reading taste was all over the place last year. I intended for it to be the year I read neglected fantasy trilogies gathering dust on my bookshelf, but instead I joined a book club for grad school and got shoved out of my comfort zone; ended up with a boyfriend (now ex, aka EBF) and read anything and everything he recommended; suddenly got into nonfiction and horror for no explicable reason; joined another book club for work and ended up reading even more books outside my wheelhouse; and discovered that I enjoyed hate-reading books during slow periods at work and on my lunch break. It was a mess. But somehow, a few favorites came out of it!

1. The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel– What the fuck even is this book. It’s a book about a book about teenage werewolves on a quest to outwit some pirates and recover a lost treasure. It’s the story of a young woman in a post-climate crisis earth living in a Gothic mansion in Japan and questing for her favorite author inside a high-tech diorama. It’s about the aftermath of environmental destruction, invasive technology and autonomy, the power of fandom and transforming stories through your love for them, fathers (love for, betrayal by, forgiveness of), and worlds within worlds. It asks meaty questions about the role of technology in generating change for the better and creating hope when that same tech is eroding what it even means to be human and experience reality. It’s the kind of cli-fi that offers hope, that’s warm, that makes you think of alternatives. It’s dense with speculative worldbuilding and plays dizzyingly with metafiction, and the whole damn thing is written in couplets!!

I feel like I can’t adequately express how much I love the things this book does. It experiments with form and language, which would be cool enough, except it goes on to explore complex themes in a thought-provoking way while throwing in a bizarre and delightful clusterfuck of elements like robot werewolves and tree furries. Most importantly, it was just so much fun to read. I want a sequel with these characters. I want to go to a con dressed as one of the garden wolves. I want to study this book for English class and write an essay on it in rhyming couplets. I did not at all expect this to be my favorite book of the year, but it absolutely is. (It also only has 19 ratings and 4 reviews on Goodreads, so if it sounds at all up your alley, please read it!!)

2. The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick– What many of my favorite books have in common this year is that they were incredibly fun to read. Mask of Mirrors is entertaining from start to finish, as schemes that would fill a lesser book are introduced and then resolved in mere chapters, and the climax is nothing but action-packed chaos. The world-building is dense and rewarding, the plot is twisty, and Ren is conning everyone, all the time, in at least 6 different ways, which of course makes it more satisfying when she ends up conning herself into actually caring about her marks. You'll like this if you enjoy a TTRPG flavor of storytelling (it started as an RPG, which makes sense once you know it), or if you enjoyed the basics of Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint but wished it had more action and large-scale worldbuilding. There is a lot going on in these books, in the best possible way.

3. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow – There’s so much I loved about this book: the slow Gothic creep, the stories within a story, the eerie illustrations, the immersive sense of place. Surprisingly, it was the grounded, realistic parts of the book that were the most compelling to me. This is a fantasy, but it’s also a small-town family drama and coming of age story that could have been literary fiction with a few changes. The prose is just gorgeous, beautiful without ever getting purple. This is ultimately the story of the most bloody-minded woman in Kentucky slowly finding a home in the place she’s lived her whole life, while she falls in love with an equally bloody-minded man. Like The Raven Cycle as haunted house story, with overtones of Hades and Persephone and Beauty and the Beast.

4. The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler – This is an 80 page novella that I usually wouldn’t count as a book, but it’s simply too good to leave off this list. It’s a strange and beautiful story about aging, climate change, sexism and exploitation, memory and language and how they shape our identities, and how we move through time. In such a short page count, there are so many powerful images that have stuck with me over six months later, including a sea of deep purple irises and a woman and an alien making love under…amidst…as? the stars. There’s something very Le Guin-like about this story with its setting of stars, shadows, and trees, and its sense of humanity. Mind-blowingly good; I highly recommend anything from Neon Hemlock Press.

5. Heir’s Game by suspu– This is a webtoon and not a novel, but I included a 100k Sherlock fanfic in my best books of 2017, so I’m also counting this. It’s a fluffy, bloodthirsty, melodramatic, swashbuckling high adventure found family story with an entertainment value off the charts. It balances a lot of different story elements and tones, each character and arc is developed so well, and there’s a truly satisfying number of pretty men covered in blood. If you’re devouring it over the course of a few days like I did, you also get to watch the author’s art style improve over the course of the four years it took them to write this. I’m morbidly impressed by the amount of effort that goes into panels I read in 2 seconds. Disclaimer that I read this alongside EBF, which may have biased my feelings towards it.

6. Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson – A lovely blend of sweet(?), sexy romance and lush description with visceral horror, creeping menace, and strong dramatic irony.* The last chapter I found a little dumb and overly conclusive, but I’m willing to forgive that due to the immersive atmosphere and tension for most of the book. Ro, the protagonist, is heartbreakingly vulnerable in her twisted justifications for why her first sapphic relationship is actually so Beautiful and Good, and Ash feels like a good depiction of a non-traditional abuser. It’s indulgent and suspenseful, and it’s also got Things to Say.

*(In response to people complaining on Goodreads that the “twist” is obvious, I would like to say: Ash is a baker/cook, the jacket contains the word “consumes” and “devouring,” and there’s a flayed body on the cover. I think a blurb may have comped it to Hannibal. If you read all that and think the publishers are spoiling the “twist” of the book instead of just advertising what the book is about, that’s a you problem. This is not a thriller trying to set up a shocking twist and leave you guessing; it’s horror, and the horror comes from knowing what’s coming and watching Ro stumble right into it with nothing we can do to stop it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.)

7. The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach– The thing I loved most about this book is that it’s truly, delightfully original. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything remotely like it. There’s living technology that’s based on plants and syncs with human biology, a fresh system of gods and resurrection, a found family pirate ship, and some viscerally disturbing body horror. I often found myself sitting still for a minute with my mouth open, head tilted slightly to the side, thinking “…how the fuck did she come up with that.” This is also such a satisfyingly queer book. It very much centers found family, and unapologetic abundance saves the day. I wish I could remember more specifics of this book, but mostly what stuck with me is that it’s weird as shit and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

8. This is Ear Hustle by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods –This is the book form of an award-winning podcast discussing the realities of life in the American prison system, from those on both the inside and outside. It’s an often intense read, which I took in pieces over two months, but the storytelling is so engrossing, and introduces its audience to people and circumstances they most likely wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. I would never have guessed that San Quentin has skill-building and education programs, including the media lab where the Ear Hustle podcast is produced, or that at least one woman began a relationship with someone already in prison, moved her entire life to a desert prison town, and raised a family there. Each story in this book humanizes people who are often given little sympathy or understanding by society (even if they have been or are cruel and violent; redemption is not the point). The system they live in is definitely cruel and violent, but they are, like everyone, multifaceted people with loved ones and hobbies. Everyone has a story. This is the best kind of nonfiction to me, the kind that alters your view of the world and is still cropping up in your thoughts over six months later.

9. They Were Here Before Us by Eric LaRocca – I went through a big Eric LaRocca phase last fall, and I think this is overall the strongest of his works. The stories range from existentially shocking tales of nature at its darkest and most unnatural(?), to grotesque body horror, to unsettling tension that creeps across the pages like a serial killer stalking outside your window. A lot of the stories deal with the desperation, grotesqueness, and violation that comes with loving another person, and there’s a recurring contrast between bodies as vessels for love and as simply meat. Bearing in mind that I once said, in bemused shock, “Is Gideon the Ninth horror??”: it pushed against the boundaries of what I was comfortable reading and thinking about, without being shock for shock value. His writing is just viscerally fucked up.

10. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer – This is a fucking dark and bleak book that officially hooked me at the end of Part One, when what I thought would be the reveal of the entire book…happened. And so I said “well, now what??” And plunged into a brutally depressing, borderline nihilistic, violently hopeful story about the nature of humanity and finding purpose in life. There are heartwarming moments in this book too, and also some funny or trivial moments that remind you this book is, for some random reason, YA.* If you enjoy sci-fi that grapples with the dizzying feeling of our microscopic place in the unending void of the cosmos, I highly recommend this one. And if you read Emma Newman’s Before Mars and want more in that vein, you’ll find a lot to love here.

*Unlike some people on Goodreads, I do see a reason for the protagonists to be teenagers, but you can very much write an adult book about teenagers

11. So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane – I regret not discovering this book as a child, because I would have loved it. It’s the story of two children who teach themselves wizardry and become embroiled in an ongoing struggle for the fate of the world. The poetic writing, the way trees are held in reverence, and the way language is magic in and of itself are all things that appeal to me as an adult, but would have been even more meaningful when I was younger. I especially loved how matter of fact the children are about discovering magic: of course there’s magic in the world. They’re children, and they can believe in anything.

Honorable Mentions:

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Smiler’s Fair by Rebecca Levene

#personal #an inexhaustable source of magic #one day. i will change that tag. but that day is not today.#further notes on fmw: i went to nd this summer where it's (partially) set #and seeing that landscape and culture depicted in the book (as irrevocably altered by/lost to climate change) added to the experience for m #also i'm so proud of myself for putting 11 books on this list #i spent so long trying to find one to cut and then i spent so long trying to justify bumping an honorable mention up a spot #but there were really only 11 books in favorite territory for me #sometimes things can be odd inauspicious numbers and it's fine #also i did not bother to put links in. forgive me. you can find them if you want them

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