#nella talks books
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Book recs: black science fiction
As february and black history month nears its end, if you're a reader let's not forget to read and appreciate books by black authors the rest of the year as well! If you're a sci-fi fan like me, perhaps this list can help find some good books to sink your teeth into.
Bleak dystopias, high tech space adventures, alien monsters, alternate dimensions, mash-ups of sci-fi and fantasy - this list features a little bit of everything for genre fiction fans!
For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!
If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Something massive and alien crashes into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria. Three people, a marine biologist, a rapper, and a soldier, find themselves at the center of this presence, attempting to shepherd an alien ambassador as chaos spreads in the city. A strange novel that mixes the supernatural with the alien, shifts between many different POVs, and gives a one of a kind look at a possible first contact.
Nubia: The Awakening (Nubia series) by Omar Epps & Clarence A. Hayes
Young adult. Three teens living in the slums of an enviromentally ravaged New York find that something powerful is awakening within them. They’re all children of refugees of Nubia, a utopian African island nation that sank as the climate worsened, and realize now that their parents have been hiding aspects of their heritage from them. But as they come into their own, someone seeks to use their abilities to his own ends, against their own people.
The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
Novella. After having failed at establishing a new colony, starship Calypso fights to make it back to Earth. Acting captain Jacklyn Albright is already struggling against the threats of interstellar space and impending starvation when the ship throws her a new danger: something is hiding on the ship, picking off her crew one by one in bloody, gruesome ways. A quick, excellent read if you want some good Alien vibes.
Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*
After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on. Includes darker examinations of agency and consent, so enter with caution.
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson*
Utterly unique in world-building, story, and prose, Midnight Robber follows young Tan-Tan and her father, inhabitants of the Carribean-colonized planet of Toussaint. When her father commits a terrible crime, he’s exiled to a parallel version of the same planet, home to strange aliens and other human exiles. Tan-Tan, not wanting to lose her father, follows with him. Trapped on this new planet, he becomes her worst nightmare. Enter this book with caution, as it contains graphic child sexual abuse.
Rosewater (The Wormwood trilogy) by Tade Thompson
In Nigeria lies Rosewater, a city bordering on a strange, alien biodome. Its motives are unknown, but it’s having an undeniable effect on the surrounding life. Kaaro, former criminal and current psychic agent for the government, is one of the people changed by it. When other psychics like him begin getting killed, Kaaro must take it upon himself to find out the truth about the biodome and its intentions.
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
Young adult. A century ago, an astronomer discovered a possibly Earth-like planet. Now, a team of veteran astronauts and carefully chosen teenagers are preparing to embark on a twenty-three year trip to get there. But space is dangerous, and the team has no one to rely on but each other if - or when - something goes wrong. An introspective slowburn of a story, this focuses more on character work than action.
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
After the planet Sadira is left uninhabitable, its few survivors are forced to move to a new world. On Cygnus Beta, they work to rebuild their society alongside their distant relatives of the planet, while trying to preserve what remains of their culture. Focused less on hard science or action, The Best of All Possible Worlds is more about culture, romance and the ethics and practicalities of telepathy.
Mirage (Mirage duology) by Somaiya Daud
Young adult. Eighteen-year-old Amani lives on an isolated moon under the oppressive occupation of the Valthek empire. When Amani is abducted, she finds herself someplace wholly unexpected: the royal palace. As it turns out, she's nearly identical to the half-Valthek, and widely hated, princess Maram, who is in need of a body double. If Amani ever wants to make it back home or see her people freed from oppression, she will have to play her role as princess perfectly. While sci-fi, this one more has the vibe of a fantasy.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Life on the lower decks of the generation ship HSS Matilda is hard for Aster, an outcast even among outcasts, trying to survive in a system not dissimilar to the old antebellum South. The ship’s leaders have imposed harsh restrictions on their darker skinned people, using them as an oppressed work force as they travel toward their supposed Promised Land. But as Aster finds a link between the death of the ship’s sovereign and the suicide of her own mother, she realizes there may be a way off the ship.
Where It Rains in Color by Denise Crittendon
The planet Swazembi is a utopia of color and beauty, the most beautiful of all its citizens being the Rare Indigo. Lileala was just named Rare Indigo, but her strict yet pampered life gets upended when her beautiful skin is struck by a mysterious sickness, leaving it covered in scars and scabs. Meanwhile, voices start to whisper in Lileala's mind, bringing to the surface a past long forgotten involving her entire society.
Eacaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus duology) by Nicky Drayden
Seske is the heir to the leader of a clan living inside a gigantic, spacefaring beast, of which they frequently need to catch a new one to reside in as their presence slowly kills the beast from the inside. While I found the ending rushed with regards to plot and character, the worldbuilding is very fresh and the overall plot of survival and class struggle an interesting one. It’s also sapphic!
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah*
In a near future America, inmates on death row or with life sentences in private prisons can choose to participate in death matches for entertainment. If they survive long enough - a rare case indeed - they regain their freedom. Among these prisoners are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker, partners behind the scenes and close to the deadline of a possible release - if only they can survive for long enough. As the game continues to be stacked against them and protests mount outside, two women fight for love, freedom, and their own humanity. Chain-Gang All-Stars is bleak and unflinching as well as genuinely hopeful in its portrayal of a dark but all to real possible future.
Parable of the Sower (Earthseed duology) by Octavia E. Butler*
In a bleak future, Lauren Olamina lives with her family in a gated community, one of few still safe places in a time of chaos. When her community falls, Lauren is forced on the run. As she makes her way toward possible safety, she picks up a following of other refugees, and sows the seeds of a new ideology which may one day be the saviour of mankind. Very bleak and scarily realistic, Parable of the Sower will make you both fear for mankind and regain your hope for humanity.
Binti (Binti trilogy) by Nnedi Okorafor
Young adult novella. Binti is the first of the Himba people to be accepted into the prestigious Oomza University, the finest place of higher learning in all the galaxy. But as she embarks on her interstellar journey, the unthinkable happens: her ship is attacked by the terrifying Meduse, an alien race at war with Oomza University.
War Girls (War Girls duology) by Tochi Onyebuchi
In an enviromentally fraught future, the Nigerian civil war has flared back up, utilizing cybernetics and mechs to enhance its soldiers. Two sisters, by bond if not by blood, are separated and end up on differing sides of the struggle. Brutal and dark, with themes of dehumanization of soldiers through cybernetics that turn them into weapons, and the effect and trauma this has on them.
The Space Between Worlds (The Space Between Worlds duology) by Micaiah Johnson
Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s a catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying. As such she has a very special job in traveling to these worlds, hoping to keep her position long enough to gain citizenship in the walled-off Wiley City, away from the wastes where she grew up. But her job is dangerous, especially when she gets on the tracks of a secret that threatens the entire multiverse. Really cool worldbuilding and characters, also featuring a sapphic lead!
The Fifth Season (The Broken Eart trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin*
In a world regularly torn apart by natural disasters, a big one finally strikes and society as we know it falls, leaving people floundering to survive in a post apocalyptic world, its secrets and past to be slowly revealed. We get to follow a mother as she races through this world to find and save her missing daughter. While mostly fantasy in genre, this series does have some sci-fi flavor, and is genuinely some of the best books I've ever read, please read them.
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings*
In an alternate version of our present, the witch hunt never ended. Women are constantly watched and expected to marry young so their husbands can keep an eye on them. When she was fourteen, Josephine's mother disappeared, leveling suspicions at both mother and daughter of possible witchcraft. Now, nearly a decade and a half later, Jo, in trying to finally accept her missing mother as dead, decides to follow up on a set of seemingly nonsensical instructions left in her will. Features a bisexual lead!
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden
South African-set scifi featuring gods ancient and new, robots finding sentience, dik-diks, and a gay teen with mind control abilities. An ancient goddess seeks to return to her true power no matter how many humans she has to sacrifice to get there. A little bit all over the place but very creative and fresh.
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson*
Young adult. Young artist June Costa lives in Palmares Tres, a beautiful, matriarchal city relying heavily on tradition, one of which is the Summer King. The most recent Summer King is Enki, a bold boy and fellow artist. With him at her side, June seeks to finally find fame and recognition through her art, breaking through the generational divide of her home. But growing close to Enki is dangerous, because he, like all Summer Kings, is destined to die.
The Blood Trials (The Blood Gifted duology) by N.E. Davenport
After Ikenna's grandfather is assasinated, she is convinced that only a member of the Praetorian guard, elite soldiers, could’ve killed him. Seeking to uncover his killer, Ikenna enrolls in a dangerous trial to join the Praetorians which only a quarter of applicants survive. For Ikenna, the stakes are even higher, as she's hiding forbidden blood magic which could cost her her life. Mix of fantasy and sci-fi. While I didn’t super vibe with this one, I suspect fans of action packed romantasy will enjoy it.
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
1960s classic. Rydra Wong is a space captain, linguist and poet who is set on learning to understand Babel-17, a language which is humanity's only clue at the enemy in an interstaller war. But Babel-17 is more than just a language, and studying it may change Rydra forever.
Pet (Pet duology) by Akwaeke Emezi
Young adult novella. Jam lives in a utopian future that has been freed of monsters and the systems which created and upheld them. But then she meets Pet, a dangerous creature claiming to be hunting a monster still among them, prepared to stop at nothing to find them. While I personally found the word-building in Pet lacking, it deftly handles dark subjects of what makes a human a monster.
Bonus AKA I haven’t read these yet but they seem really cool
Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
Alternate history in which Africans colonized South America while vikings colonized the North. The vikings sell abducted Celts and Franks as slaves to the South, one of which is eleven-years-old Irish boy Aidan O'Dere, who was just bought by a Southern plantation owner.
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
Young adult dystopia. Ellie lives in a future where humanity is under the control of the alien Ilori. All art is forbidden, but Ellie keeps a secret library; when one of her books disappears, she fears discovery and execution. M0Rr1S, born in a lab and raised to be emotionless, finds her library, and though he should deliver her for execution, he finds himself obsessed with human music. Together the two embark on a roadtrip which may save humanity.
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Lelah lives in future Botswana, but despite money and fame she finds herself in an unhappy marriage, her body controlled via microchip by her husband. After burying the body of an accidental hit and run, Lelah's life gets worse when the ghost of her victim returns to enact bloody vengeance.
Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
Young adult. Fen de la Guerre, living in a quarantined Gulf Coast left devestated by storms and sickness, is forced on the run with a newborn after her tribe is attacked. Hoping to get the child to safety, Fen seeks to get to the other side of the wall, she teams up with a scientist from the outside the quarantine zone.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
A neo-victorian alternate history, in which a part of Congo was kept safe from colonisation, becoming Everfair, a safe haven for both the people of Congo and former slaves returning from America. Here they must struggle to keep this home safe for them all.
The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Space opera. Enitan just wants to live a quiet life in the aftermath of a failed war of conquest, but when her lover is killed and her sister kidnapped, she's forced to leave her plans behind to save her sister.
Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: The City We Became (Great Cities duology) by N.K. Jemisin, The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull, The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole
#nella talks books#lagoon#nubia the awakening#the scourge between stars#xenogenesis#midnight robber#rosewater#do you dream of terra two?#the best of all possible worlds#mirage#an unkindness of ghosts#where it rains in color#escaping exodus#chain gang all stars#parable of the sower#binti#war girls#the space between worlds#the fifth season#the women could fly#the prey of gods#the summer prince#the blood trials#babel 17#pet
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100 Fiction Books to Read Before You Die
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sparks
The Girl by Meridel Le Sueur
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Passing by Nella Larson
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Street by Ann Petry
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskill
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
The Price of Salt/Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Wise Blood by Flannery O Conner
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
House of Incest by Anaïs Nin
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
See Now Then by Jamaica Kincaid
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Democracy by Joan Didion
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O Connor
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
I Must Betray You be Ruta Sepetys
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill
City of Beasts by Isabel Allende
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
Quicksand by Nella Larsen
The Narrows by Ann Petry
The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir
Under the Sea by Rachel Carson
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones
Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
@gaydalf @kishipurrun @unsentimentaltranslator @algolagniaa @stariduks @hippodamoi
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Various incorrect quotes I usually have to edit to have the right character dynamics
———
Cherri: I'm going the fight the next person who insults Angel.
Angel: I hate myself.
Cherri: Alright, square up.
———
Alastor: Oh, fiddlesticks! That really ruffles my feathers!
Husk: Please, just say fuck.
———
Lucifer: Hey Adam, Lilith just broke my apple-shaped lamp.
Adam: Neat. I’m gonna die alone.
Lucifer: Okay, you win.
———
Applebee's Waiter: What would you like to order?
Pentious: I'll take the apple.
Applebee's Waiter: We don't actually sell apples.
Pentious, visibly frightened: Ok then... I'll have the bees...
(not edited)
———
Ritz: I thought you were going to give me a book recommendation or something.
Nella: *laughs* Book recommendation? I can’t read!
(“Whaddup I’m Nella, I’m 19 and I never fuckin learned how to read”)
———
Husk: Your future self is talking shit about you right now.
Angel: Jokes on them. I'll ruin his fucking life.
———
Molly: Sorry if I'm bothering you...
Surgeon: How do you keep waking up and saying that?
#*discreetly sneaks in my ocs*#clarity speaks#incorrect quote generator#hazbin incorrect quotes#oc incorrect quotes#incorrect quotes#angel hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel molly#hazbin hotel angel dust#alastor hazbin hotel#molly hazbin hotel#hazbin#hazbin husk#hazbin hotel husk#hazbin nella#hazbin ritzelle#hazbin bayla#hazbin hotel#hazbin alastor#hazbin angel dust#hazbin hotel finale#hazbin hotel lucifer#hazbin hotel spoilers#hazbin lucifer#hazbin adam#shitposts#shitpostss#shitpost#the creatures of my brain
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2023 books — be my friend on storygraph :)
I feel bad about my neck - nora ephron (☆☆☆☆☆)
the duke and I - julia quinn (☆☆)
small fires: an epic in the kitchen - rebecca may johnson (☆☆☆☆½)
taste: my life through food - stanley tucci (☆☆☆☆)
passing - nella larsen (☆☆☆☆)
if we were villains - m.l. rio (☆☆☆☆☆)
the metamorphosis - franz kafka (☆☆☆)
after I do - taylor jenkins reid (☆☆☆☆☆)
our endless numbered days - claire fuller (☆☆☆½)
happy place - emily henry (☆☆☆☆☆)
other parents - sarah stovell (☆☆☆☆)
the lonely city: adventures in the art of being alone - olivia laing (☆☆☆☆)
women talking - miriam toews (☆☆☆☆½)
meet me at the lake - carley fortune (☆☆☆☆)
humankind: a hopeful history - rutger bregman (☆☆☆☆☆)
mules of love - ellen bass (☆☆☆☆½)
a thousand mornings - mary oliver (☆☆☆½)
the course of love - alain de botton (☆☆☆½)
medusa - jessie burton (☆☆☆½)
so you want to talk about race - ijeoma oluo (☆☆☆☆)
sex power money - sara pascoe (☆☆☆☆☆)
red, white & royal blue - casey mcquiston (☆☆☆☆☆) (re-read)
east of eden - john steinbeck (☆☆☆☆☆)
in memoriam - alice winn (☆☆☆☆☆)
everyday sexism - laura bates (☆☆☆☆)
icebreaker - hannah grace (☆☆☆)
romantic comedy - curtis sittenfeld (☆☆☆☆)
fahrenheit 451 - ray bradbury (☆☆☆½)
the other passenger - louise candlish (☆☆☆☆)
consent: a memoir - vanessa spingora (☆☆☆☆)
women & power: a manifesto - mary beard (☆☆☆☆½)
postcolonial love poem - natalie diaz (☆☆½)
the ballad of songbirds and snakes - suzanne collins (☆☆☆☆½) (re-read)
the simple wild - k.a. tucker (☆☆☆☆)
house of hollow - krystal sutherland (☆☆☆☆)
the hobbit - j.r.r. tolkien (☆☆☆☆½)
high windows - philip larkin (☆☆)
so late in the day - claire keegan (☆☆☆☆)
one day in december - josie silver (☆☆☆½)
the woman in me - britney spears (☆☆☆☆)
assembly - natasha brown (☆☆☆)
feel your way through - kelsea ballerini (☆☆☆½)
a christmas carol - charles dickens (☆☆☆½)
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I have an anecdote about when I worked for a company and a co-worker left to work in a different state on military aircraft. He had to get a TS clearance and because we had worked for several years together he asked if I would be okay with being interviewed for his clearance. I said sure and an interviewer w the gov, arranged to come to my place of work and conduct the interview there. I was asked questions about him like how well did I know him, and whatever answer I gave led to more specific questions like if I answered a question about knowing his wife, they would ask if I thought his marriage sounded secure etc.
This memory of that experience was on my mind while I read your story and I wondered who Iceman would choose for his TS clearance interviews (and who the gov would choose for him) and what would they say? I feel like their "secret" would be uncovered in even a low level clearance (years later I had to submit names for a low level Public Trust clearance for my job) It was so embarrassing because I did not have many friends I was comfortable submitting for that as I kept my work and home life very separate.
Anyway, that is my "cool story, bro"
Thank you for such a great and well researched story!
this is indeed a cool story bro and touches on what is literally my story’s fatal flaw, which is: Yeah, a shitload of people would’ve known about it. I am going to hijack your question to talk about that, so my apologies, though i will get around to your question by the end. This is gonna be a really long post. I have a lot to say and a lot of ground to cover.
So I wanna start out by talking about the structure of this story and its core conflict, because while I’d like to say this story is rooted in an accurate depiction of the US military, obviously that’s not true; it’s rooted in the dynamic of the story that i wanted to tell, which is the story of a guy coming to realize the truth behind a Big Lie—him passing as straight. And that’s a pretty universal story, but it’s made more specific by the fact that a) the guy canonically wants to be the best in an institution that enforces the Big Lie and b) the guy canonically is so successful because he follows the rules/orders of that institution. So, for character growth, to put it simply, the guy (Ice) has to come to the conclusion that the Big Lie is a lie by himself. He can’t be told/ordered that the Big Lie is a lie, otherwise he hasn’t grown out of “just following orders.” (I’ll get to the Big Lie in a second. I made charts and story structure graphs below.)
The only other story about a Big Lie I can think of off the top of my head right now is Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen, which is about a Black woman in Chicago trying to pass as both white and straight. It’s a great book and I’ll try not to spoil it, you should really read it for yourself, but the terminology I’m going to use in this post comes from an analysis of it, so just to bring you up to speed—Clare, the woman trying to pass as white, is recognized by a friend, another Black-but-passing woman, Irene, who is shocked that Clare has abandoned her heritage (the truth of her, that is) and married a hyper-racist white man who doesn’t even know that she’s Black. So the book sets up a dynamic of the Big Lie that I’ve outlined here (hopefully it makes sense):
I built on this dynamic for my fic. Ice is both a “dupe” and a “passing figure,” in that he believes the lie that he is straight and also passes for straight—but it’s also more complicated than that because he’s not actually straight (getting to that). Mav is an “in-group clairvoyant” and can recognize Ice as passing because he is also straight-passing. The Navy are a bunch of “dupes.” But…what is Slider, for instance, or your question’s hypothetical government official who, yes, will 100% find out because people always find out?
In comes my ginormous-and-overly-wordy WWGATTAI Plot and Character Dynamic Summary Graph. You don’t really have to read it all, the only important bits for this discussion are the leftmost column (“plot”) and the green quadrant (“out-group clairvoyants”).
To summarize—people who know the truth can’t actually act on it, because for Ice’s character growth to make sense, he has to come to the truth himself. This forecloses the possibility of any outwardly homophobic action (by which I mean someone like a govt official or one of my lame OCs actually challenging him on his illegal relationship) in the plot, because for 90% of the story Ice is so fragile that he would probably just cave immediately and double down on the internalized homophobia. So, for plot purposes, everyone—including Mav, as it happens—has to sort of tiptoe around Ice’s obvious not-straightness and give him an unreasonable amount of grace so he can figure it out for himself.
And therein lies the fatal flaw of this story. It is, like, not conceptually viable. Of course people would find out, of course the government would interrogate him about it, of course he’d have to confront the truth much sooner than TWENTY-FIVE years after he first starts messing around with Mav. Which literally breaks my heart because I didn’t realize it was a fundamentally busted story until long after I had finished writing the base plot & couldn’t fix the overarching problems 😭 The thing is, it had to be this way, because there is at least a thirty-year gap between TG86 and TGM22, and TGM is obviously the emotional climax of the series and my story had to match that. So—fanfic and its canon constraints, everyone.
But also… I can explain away these logical inconsistencies with story structure & character dynamic graphs to make the story make sense, sure, but it doesn’t change the truth of the matter, which is that… I hadn’t ever really thought about things like security clearances, and therefore wrote around them because I didn’t even know to consider them. And I know there are a bunch of other details in this story that betray my immaturity (anytime I talk about alcohol, for instance—I still am not legal to drink in this stupid country & have only cheap bad experiences to draw on; THE HOUSE—if i could rewrite this story from the beginning they would not have bought a fucking house together, what was I thinking???) and the lack of thought about the real-life logistics and consequences of secrecy is one of them.
And it’s exactly what I mean when I say “I look at this story and all I see are its flaws,” which is why I wanted to write this post & get it on record. I have just enough life experience to read my own writing and know that it’s fundamentally unconvincing, and not enough life experience to know how to fix it. :(
But, to answer your original question, you’ve got me brainstorming a scene where Ice is asking Slider to be his character witness & Slider’s like “Look bro do you want me to lie to the federal government under oath for you because I will” and Ice has to be like “Legally I cannot ask that of you but”
#in case you couldnt tell it really bothers me#idk what the age range of the ppl who read my fics is but i knoooow there are#some parts of this story where you read it and you go#yeah a little kid wrote that#if you asked me what a 401k is with a gun to my head i could not tell you#so the fact that people care about my opinions on these like really grown up adult problems is#literally like the highest compliment ever#but i feel bad that i don’t have the life experience to give a convincing answer & i apologize for that#ive grown up so much & so quickly working on this project both as a writer and as a person & so thankful for that#but it also means that i look back on even recent work & say WTF LITTLE KID ALERT#so#sorry i turned your question into a fiction lecture#but lol that’s like the one thing i actually AM a little bit qualified to talk about#and your question represents like the fundamental fatal flaw of the story i have spent literally 100s of hours on#so I wanted to talk about it#thank you for the ask <3333333#my birthday is in a couple days so just thinking about getting older lol#edts notes#top gun#top gun maverick#icemav#tom iceman kazansky#asks#hope to one day put this energy into like a job or sumn
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I thought it might be fun to list all the classic lit I’ve read so people can ask me questions about them, if they want because I need to talk more about classic literature.
Note: I’ve defined “classic lit” as “prose or epic poetry published before 1970” just because that made sense to me (so no plays by Willy Shakes even though I have read a fair bit of Shakespeare).
Also, please tell me about any books you’ve read (don’t have to be classics) so I can ask you about them <3
1. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
2. “Emma” by Jane Austen
3. “Persuasion” by Jane Austen
4. “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
5. “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen
6. “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott
7. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
8. “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
9. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
10. “Tortilla Flat” by John Steinbeck
11. “1984” by George Orwell
12. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
13. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë
14. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. “The Beautiful and Damned” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
17. “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens
18. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
19. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
20. “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
21. “The Aeneid” by Virgil
22. “The Odyssey” by Homer
23. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
24. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote
25. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
26. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë
27. “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy
28. “Far from the Madding Crowd” by Thomas Hardy
29. “North and South” by Elizabeth Gaskell
30. “Passing” by Nella Larsen
31. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
32. “The Fellowship of the Ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien
33. “The Two Towers” by J.R.R. Tolkien
34. “The Return of the King” by J.R.R Tolkien
35. “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery
36. “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton
37. “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier
#mine#classic lit#books#jane austen#pride and prejudice#persuasion#charlotte bronte#jane eyre#emily bronte#wuthering heights#john steinbeck#east of eden#of mice and men#thomas hardy#tess of the d'urbervilles#mary shelley#frankenstein#bram stoker#dracula#charles dickens#louisa may alcott#little women#f scott fitzgerald#the great gatsby#the beautiful and damned#homer#the odyssey#the aeneid#breakfast at tiffany's#to kill a mockingbird
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The link to Miles interview on Radio Freccia
He sounds so happy and adorable (especially when he’s talking bout meeting Roberto Baggio)
31/05/2023
But also where’s his Helter skelter ring (y’know the spiral one he always wears other than his signet ring)
Oh nevermind he’s now wearing that one on his necklace bottom left pic (like some would a wedding band)
Part of the interview
Another interview bit
-favorite food or drink on tour?
-favorite item of clothing on tour?(he’s now obsessed with neck scarfs don’t we know somebody else who’s also fallen under that spell)
-favorite artist to hear on tour?
-good luck charm on tour? (His moms ring, the helter skelter that’s usually around his little finger but during that interview round his necklace)
-readings on tour? (No book but fifa 🤣 good to know he’s still obsessed)
-something strange in the rider? (Do we buy that answer ?!🤣 actin all innocent)
-what can not be missing in the hotel? (Toothbrush)
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*✧ — may 2023 wrap up
you know how i said the things i said last month. yeah lmao my reading went up while my mental health declined 😬✌️ anyway, here we are. it is what it is, even though my thesis is no where near where it should be. welp.
2023 goal: 99/100 books
as alway, feel free to drop book recs, questions, or opinions in my inbox; i am always happy to talk to you about books!
* –> newly added to my favorites shelf
follow my goodreads | follow my storygraph | previous wrap ups
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The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty | 4.5★
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint | 3.75★
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo | 3.5★
Ayiti by Roxane Gay | 3.5★
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler | 4★ | review
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo | 3.5★
My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura | 4.5★ | review
Writers & Lovers by Lily King | 4.5★ | review
Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf | 4★
* Happy Place by Emily Henry | 5★ | review
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino | 5★
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid | 3.5★
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet | 2★ | review
Spell Bound by L.F. Lukens | 3.75★ | review
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf | 4★
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu | 3.5★
Passing by Nella Larsen | 5★
Orlando by Virginia Woolf | 4.25★
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster | 4.5★
Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt | no rating | review
You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca | 3★
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rereads
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo | 2.5★
Why God is a Woman by Nin Andrews | 4★ | review
In. by Will McPhail | 5★
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead | 5★ | review
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3, 6, 12
3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr
When I stumble upon a terrible take (which happens from time to time), I argue with that person in my head for a while and then usually forget about it. So I don't remember seeing anything as crazy as blaming Celebrimbor for his torture (seriously, what? I think that might be THE worst take I've seen), but I have come across your usual Elwing abandoned her children, Indis is a homewrecker, the Feanorians were justified in attacking Doriath and Sirion and (rarer but still terrible) the Teleri are to blame for the first kinslaying. And then of course, there is rewriting the entire book to make Morgoth and Sauron misunderstood woobies and everyone else evil and uncaring.
I've also seen a few terrible takes in fics like Elrond slapping Elwing (immediately noped out) or two characters being in a relationship that is incredibly unhealthy but is presented as normal.
6. which ship fans are the most annoying?
Russingon? Haha. At the very least by virtue of it being the most popular ship. If I didn't ship it, I might have been annoyed too by how pervasive it is, but I do ship it, so sorry for being annoying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe it's because I haven't gone looking for it, but I haven't noticed big ship wars in this fandom, which is a major cause of a ship and its fans becoming annoying.
I also get annoyed by most Finrod ships, but that's just a question of a personal preference and not the fans being annoying.
12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them
Thingol. Yes, he is an asshole. Yes, he did some questionable things. But so did almost all of the characters in the Silmarillion, yet Thingol doesn't get the same grace and understanding that others are allowed. Maybe it's because I read CoH before the Silm, but I've always liked Thingol.
He accepted Turin, raised him and loved him. I know some people have found issues even with his treatment of Turin, but I believe that he genuinely loved Turin and wanted the best for him. After Turin left, he also accepted Morwen and Nienor. He had a great redemption arc after the quest for the Silmaril and people always ignore it. I honestly don't think he seriously meant for Beren to bring him the Silmaril. It's a common fairy tale trope when the King sends his daughter's suitor after an impossible thing, believing that he won't do it. Thingol never intended to get the Silmaril. He just said something he thought was impossible to get rid of Beren. It is an assholish thing to do, but it isn't overly malicious.
He admitted his mistake and accepted Beren when he and Luthien came back. He grieved for him when he died. I think this also gets forgotten when people talk about Thingol.
He is also one of the few characters in the Silmarillion that makes a joke. It's such a humanizing moment. His joke isn't even at someone's expense. It makes Nellas feel at ease and she's able to speak to him.
Thanks for the ask <3
ask game here
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Book recs: the evil fungi did it
We all know of The Last of Us, but that franchise isn't the only example of fungal invasions. We've got zombies and apocalypses, we've got gothic horror, we've got fantasy, we've got romance, we've got space - no genre is safe from having their characters become the home of fungal organisms.
For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!
If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!
The Girl with all the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts series) by M.R. Carey
Want another fungal zombie apocalypse? Then I come bearing great news! The Girl with All the Gifts is a post apocalyptic novel following a group of characters fleeing across an infested wasteland, trying to stay alive and hoping to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!
Cold Storage by David Koepp*
Years ago, a quickly growing fungal organism capable of wiping out humanity came dangerously close to spreading. It was contained and kept in cold storage underneath a military repository. Since then, a larger storage facility has been built on top, the dangers on the lower floor being largely forgotten. That is, until it makes a new attempt at escape. Now, two unsuspecting security guards might be all that stands in the way of complete extermination. This book is both funny and genuine in its characters, and genuinely creepy in its portrayal of body horror.
Salvaged by Madeline Roux
Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, and has run so far she ended up in space. Now she works as a "space janitor", being sent off to clean up the remains of failed research expeditions. But in trying to cope with her problems, she has fucked up on her job multiple times, and is now close to losing her position. Her last chance is the Brigantine: a research vessel gone silent, all crew presumed dead. But when she arrives to salvage it, Rosalyn discovers the crew isn't as dead as presumed. But are they still human - and will Rosalyn be able to keep her own humanity?
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Novella. Reid is a young woman living in a small community after a climate collapse. Resources are scarce, but Reid's biggest problem is Cad, a mind-altering fungal parasite that lives inside her body. When she is offered a rare chance at attending a far-away university in a secluded dome community, Reid must decide whether to leave or stay to help support her community.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia*
Noemí Taboada is a glamorous and well-off young woman, but when she receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí must leave her glamorous life and travel to find out what is wrong. As she arrives at High Place, a mansion on the Mexican countryside, Noemí is met with mysteries and her cousin's new English family. As she tries to find out the truth behind High Place and its inhabitants, Noemí's only ally is the youngest son of the family. But will she be able to find out what so scared her cousin before it's too late for all of them?
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hiding from both a world wanting to oppress her and the cult seeking to force her back, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Bleak and scary, Sorrowland is a book that will creep under your skin with horrors both fantastical and very, very real.
What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier duology) by T. Kingfisher
Novella. Alex Easton, retired soldier, travels to visit their childhood friends, siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is dying. In the siblings' rural, ancestral home, Madeline walks in her sleep and looks to be fading away, while around it wildlife seems to be possessed by a strange force. With the help of a mycologist and an American doctor, Alex attempts to save Madeline and reveal the truth of her illness.
Wanderers (Wanderers duology) by Chuck Wendig
A strange illness has struck the United States: with no warning, random people with seemingly no connection simply get up and start walking. They do not eat, do not sleep, do not communicate, and they do not stop - and if you try to force them, they literally explode from the inside. Teenaged Shana isn't one of these sleepwalkers, but her little sister is. Unwilling to leave her sister on her own, Shana accompanies the growing flock of walkers, protecting them as one of many "shepherds". And this protection proves necessary, as the sleepwalkers is only the first step toward what might very well be the extinction of the human race. An 800 page epic, Wanderers is a slowburn apocalypse story with a multitude pov characters and plot threads, from fungal pandemics and all-knowing AI to the all too real portrayal of radicalization and bigotry.
The Dawnhounds (The Endsong series) by Sascha Stronach
The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It’s really cool and unlike anything else I’ve ever read, but also a bit confusing. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!
Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier trilogy) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Novella. A government agent known only as the Signalman; a cult preying on the young and vulnerable, promising to usher in a new age; a woman who exists outside of time, searching for a way to save humanity. Agents of Dreamland is short, but includes many spooky elements, among them an alien and possibly world-ending fungi. The narrative is non-linear and a bit strange, but also fascinating.
The Genius Plague by David Walton
Soon after landing his dream job at the NSA, things get weird for Neil Johns. His brother Paul, a mycologist, returns from a trip to the Amazon, carrying a nearly lethal fungal infection and a strangely sharpened mind. At work, Neil starts picking up mysterious messages originating out of South America, where cases similar to that of Paul starts occurring. And strangest of all: all the infected seem to be working towards the same goal. Recommended with the caveat that, while the fungal stuff is really cool, The Genius Plague is also happy to idolize American intelligent agencies and demonize environmentalism and anti-imperialism.
Little Mushroom: Judgement Day (Little Mushroom duology) by Shisi
An Zhe isn’t human. He’s a mushroom who absorbed the DNA of a dying man, allowing him to take on human guise and leave the wilderness. Entering one of the last human bases, a place struggling to keep out the mutated and dangerous creatures of the wilds, An Zhe must keep his identity secret as he searches for something which was taken from him. While not my cup of tea (frankly, I need more female characters), Little Mushroom is an undeniably unique m/m romance novel.
Bonus AKA these don't technically involve any fungi but have similar vibes of parasites and nature corrupting the human
Parasite (Parasitology trilogy) by Mira Grant*
In the near future, a great leap in medical science has improved human health by leaps and bounds: a genetically engineered tape worm. Within a few years, almost every human has their own personal parasite implanted. But now, something is happening to the parasites - they want more, whether their hosts want to share or not.
Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer
For decades, Area X has been completely cut off from humanity. The only ones to enter are small organized expeditions, many of which never return, or return... wrong. We follow the latest expedition, its participants known only as the anthropologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and our narrator, the biologist. As they enter into Area X to try to find out its secrets, only one thing is for sure: they will never be the same again.
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Young adult. Over a year ago, the Raxter School for Girls was hit by the Tox, a strange disease that killed off many and left the survivors' bodies slowly changing in terrifying ways. The island the school is on has been in quarantine since then, and the girls dare not leave the school grounds lest they become victims of wild animals changed by the Tox. But as they wait for the promised cure, one of the girls goes missing, and her friends are willing to do anything to find her. Unsettling, spooky, and sapphic, this is a unique read featuring body horror and messy, dangerous girls.
(Second) Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool
City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer
Ambergris, a city created by a mushroom-like people, is now the home of humans, but the original inhabitants are still there, residing beneath the city.
Creatures of Want and Ruin (Diabolist's Library series) by Molly Tanzer
It’s the prohibition era, and while Ellie does fishing during the day, at night she bootlegs moonshine in Long Island. But unbeknownst to Ellie, some of the booze she smuggles has a strange source: distilled from mushrooms by a cult, it causes those who drink it to see terrible things, such as the the destruction of Long Island.
Bloom by Wil McCarthy
The inner solar system has been overtaken by fast-reproducing, fast-mutating technogenic life. Humanity has fled to the outer solar system, hiding beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon, but even here they aren't safe from possible incursion of mycospores, which lead to deadly blooms. Now a group of astronauts venture back to an infected Earth.
#the girl with all the gifts#cold storage#salvaged#the annual migration of clouds#mexican gothic#sorrowland#what moves the dead#wanderers#the dawnhounds#agents of dreamland#the genius plague#little mushroom#parasitology#annihilation#wilder girls#nella talks books
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Folks who both read and watched The Other Black Girl, how did you feel about the changes?
(spoilers below)
The show seemed to acknowledge the changes by talking about the "original ending" of Diana's book being depressing but realistic where the published ending was lighter and more consumable.
I didn't necessarily like the change in the show because it felt less systemic and sinister - Nella's critiques were vindicated, she was right, her boss was fired and she got the promotion. But the book was about her being gaslit and broken down to succumb, which was what was scary. The TV show didn't have that element.
Hazel May was her opposite in that she was dark skinned, had locked hair, was from Harlem - all of these things that were "supposed" to make her less successful in Nella's understanding of white supremacy didn't hinder her; despite the fact Nella was a light skinned girl from Connecticut, she didn't rise in the same way as Hazel May and that was part of why she was so befuddled by what was going on in the book. But the TV show basically erased that element of confusion and gaslighting and I think that changed the story in a way that I didn't really... Get why it happened? Idk.
I'm white so obviously that's gonna change the way I've understood/read the story, I'd love thoughts from Black folks on these changes.
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Books I've read in 2023
'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner
'The Tea Dragon Society' by K. O'Neill
'A Certain Hunger' by Chelsea G. Summers
'How to Break Up with Your Phone' by Catherine Price
'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka
'Animals Eat Each Other' by Elle Nash
'Coming Out Autistic' edited by Steven Fraser
'The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches' by Sangu Mandanna
'We Swim to the Shark' by Georgie Codd
'Passing' by Nella Larsen
'The Service' by Frankie Miren
'What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life' by Pete Wharmby
'The Inland Sea' by Madeleine Watts
'Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic' by Esther Perel
'Let Them Eat Chaos' by Kae Tempest
'Introducing Existentialism' by Richard Appiganesi
'The Silence Project' by Carole Hailey
'Cursed Bunny' by Bora Chung
'Sunshine' by Melissa Lee-Houghton
'The Delicacy' by James Albon
'Are Prisons Obselete?' by Angela Y. Davis
'The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night' by Jen Campbell
'Square Eyes' by Luke Jones and Anna Mills
'Chess Queens: The True Story of a Chess Champion and the Greatest Female Players of All Time' by Jennifer Shahade
'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' by Wendy Cope
'The Housekeeper and the Professor' by Yōko Ogawa
'The Artificial Silk Girl' by Irmgard Keun
'Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language' by Gretchen McCulloch
'Esc & Ctrl' by Steve Hollyman
'The Doors of Perception' by Aldous Huxley
'Sedating Elaine' by Dawn Winter
'Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After' by Chloé Hayden
'The Appendix' by Liam Konemann
'Food Isn't Medicine: Challenge Nutrib*llocks & Escape the Diet Trap' by Dr Joshua Wolrich
'Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta' by James Hannaham
'Lies We Sing to the Sea' by Sarah Underwood
'Julia and the Shark' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave with Tom de Freston
'Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?' by Lorrie Moore
'Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century' edited by Alice Wong
'This Is How You Lose the Time War' by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
'Small Bodies of Water' by Nina Mingya Powles
'The Cassandra Complex' by Holly Smale
'French Exit' by Patrick deWitt
'Sundial' by Catriona Ward
'Don't Hold My Head Down: In Search of Some Brilliant Fucking' by Lucy-Anne Holmes
'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernardine Evaristo
'The Love Factor' (So Little Time #8) by Rosalind Noonan
'Paris: The Memoir' by Paris Hilton
'All Systems Red' (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
'Intimations' by Zadie Smith
'Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism' by Amanda Montell
'Motherthing' by Ainslie Hogarth
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classic lit is the only genre of book I buy every time because I just like to annotate and keep note thus I decided to make a read vs to be read of my classics as right now I do have a lot piled up I've been meaning to get to ALSO! I just like talking about classic lit
so please let me know which I should prioritise
physical tbr classics
zami: a new spelling of my name by audre lorde
a room with a view by em forster
the professor by charlotte bronte
a passage to india by em forster
mrs dalloway by virginia woolf
the last tycoon by f.scott fitzgerald
jamaica inn by daphne du maurier
if beale street could talk by james baldwin
howards end by em forster
dr jekyll and mr hyde by robert louis stevenson
antony and cleopatra by william shakespheare
a clockwork orange by anthony burgess
read classics below cut for my tracking
pre 1500s:
the iliad by homer
oedipus the king
1500-1800
the merchant of venice, hamlet, much ado about nothing, king lear pericles, the tempest, othello, measure for measure by william shakespheare
1800-1900
a tale of two cities, hard times, great expectations by charles dickens
heart of darkness by joseph conrad
jane eyre by charlotte bronte
wuthering heights by emily bronte
the tenant of wildfell hall by anne bronte
sherlock holmes by arthur conan doyle
the mill on the floss by george eliot
cousin phyllis by elizabeth gaskell
the moonstone by wilkie collins
little women by louisa may alcott
dracula by bram stoker
maurice, where angels fear to tread by em forster
sense and sensibility, persuasion, emma, pride and prejudice, northanger abbey by jane austen
the turn of the screw by henry james
frankenstein by mary shelley
treasure island by robert louis stevenson
the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde
black beauty by anna sewell
peter pan by jm barrie
1900-1970
on the road by jack kerouac
dubliners, ulysses by james joyce
the great gatsby, tender is the night by f. scott fitzgerald
rebecca, the house on the strand by daphne du maurier
notes of a native son, giovanni's room by james baldwin
childhood by tove ditlevson
letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke
voss by patrick white
my brilliant career by miles franklin
nightwood by djuna barnes
brideshead revisted by evelyn waugh
their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston
one hundred years of solitide by gabriel garcia maquez
wide sargasso sea, good morning midnight by jean rhys
passing by nella larson
the waste land, the lovesong of j.alred prufrock by t.s eliot
to the lighthouse, a room of ones own by virginina woolf
to kill a mockingbird by harper lee
sula by toni morrison
endgame by samuel beckett
things fall apart by chinua achebe
lord of the flies by willian golding
death of a salesman by arthur miller
a streetcar named desire by tenneesee williams
animal farm by george orwell
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not to become a disciple or something. but do you have any media recommendations, like books/films/shows. because i like the way you think. sorry for mass rbing btw
Smiley also knew, or thought he knew - the idea came to him now as a mild enlightenment - that Bill in turn was also very little by himself: that while his admirers - Bland, Prideaux, Alleline, Esterhase, and all the rest of the supporters' club - might find in him completeness, Bill's real trick was to use them, to live through them to complete himself; here a piece, there a piece, from their passive identities: thus disguising the fact that he was less, far less, than the sum of his apparent qualities… and finally submerging this dependence beneath an artist's arrogance, calling them the creatures of his mind…
this passage from tinker, tailor, soldier, spy is what i think of every time anyone tries to put me on a pedestal as Tumblr User Autisticandroids. like genuinely my main skill is making connections with other people and essentially propping myself up through them, though of course i don't really do it on purpose.
anyway unfortunately my taste in media isn't going to contain what you want i don't think. i'm going to give you an extremely random list of things i like. not favorites, but just stuff i enjoy.
my favorite episode of star trek: the next generation is season six episode fourteen "face of the enemy," but if you're going to actually get involved with star trek i would recommend deep space nine instead. when i want to alienate people i put on an episode of the prisoner (1967) because i love that show but it's deeply unenjoyable. i unironically think kill la kill is a great anime. the private life of plants is probably the tv series i've seen the most times.
talking to you, talking to me by the watson twins is underappreciated and contains some of my favorite pieces of music. however, the only thing i've listened to lately is the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars by david bowie because it's a castiel thesis to me.
passing by nella larsen is one of my favorite books ever, and when i first read it i had this free online version where you could actually turn the pages, i think it was this version. i think speaker for the dead is wildly underrated but feel vaguely guilty about recommending orson scott card. a bad book that has brought me a lot of joy lately is absolute friends by john le carre. as a kid i really like the underland chronicles by suzanne collins. a while ago i read the three body trilogy by liu cixin and while the second one dragged and was rather poorly translated, i enjoyed the first for its creativity, classic scifi feel, and understated spookiness, and i enjoyed the third for its dark camp and comparatively strongly drawn characters. even the second had acceptable elements, but mostly because i was tickled by the fact that it reminded me a little of the futurological congress by stanislaw lem.
i just finished relistening to the white vault, a horror podcast which i like a lot but am more ambivalent about now that i know the ending (it wasn't finished the first time i listened). if you hate horror, my favorite non-fiction podcast is you're wrong about.
my favorite source for horror short stories is the scp foundation, and here are some faves.
my favorite movie is alice (1988) dir. jan svankmajer, which is an adaptation of alice in wonderland. it's very much a childhood nostalgia watch for me, unbelievable as that might seem. here's a link, but this version is in czech with english subtitles, so you might have to scout around if you want the english version. not that this movie has much dialogue. a rather eclectic selection of other movies i've liked that i just thought of in the last ten minutes is bride of re-animator (1989), x-men (2000), d.e.b.s. (2004), mirrormask (2005), isolation (2005), the host (2006), hard revenge millie (2009), black swan (2010), excision (2012), the handmaiden (2016), and swallow (2019). my movie taste is probably the closest you'll get in terms of media recs that you might enjoy based on my blog, since i hate movies and can only be tempted to watch them if they cater to me. but also big trigger warnings for some of those lmao.
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"And they try to heal the wound ... lightly, saying:
"There is peace!
There is peace!”,
while there is no peace.
“And you must tell them: "... Why do these people... continue to behave unfaithfully?
Persists in deception;
he refuses to go back.
I paid attention and kept listening but the way they talk is not right.
Is there no one who repents of his wickedness or who says, 'What have I done?'
Everyone keeps following the crowd, like a horse charging into battle.
Are they ashamed of the detestable things they have done?
They feel no shame.
They don't even know what it's like to be ashamed!
Therefore they will fall among the fallen.
When I punish them, they will stumble,' says Jehovah."
(From the book of Jeremiah chapter 8)
These Bible verses look like they were written today.
In fact, they well describe the current world situation which is creating "anguish among nations".
All of today's world context is the culmination of the disastrous history of humanity, an irrefutable proof of its failure.
Does this mean that there is no way out?
No, there is hope and it is sure because it comes from our Creator that he has long established the day when he will end and remedy the disaster caused by man.
How will he do it?
What will happen?
The Bible explains this and it is vitally important for each of us to know it.
For more information see the article:
"WHO WILL LEAD HUMANITY TO PEACE?"
that you can find online for free by typing the title in the internet search bar.
Links:
📌
"E cercano di sanare la ferita ...con leggerezza, dicendo:
“C’è pace! C’è pace!”,
mentre non c’è nessuna pace.
“E devi dire loro: "... Perché questo popolo... continua a comportarsi infedelmente?
Persiste nell’inganno;
si rifiuta di tornare indietro.
Ho prestato attenzione e continuato ad ascoltare, ma il modo in cui parlano non è giusto.
Non c’è nessuno che si penta della sua malvagità o che dica: ‘Che cosa ho fatto?’
Ognuno continua a seguire la massa, come un cavallo che si lancia nella battaglia.
Si vergognano forse delle cose detestabili che hanno fatto?
Non provano nessuna vergogna.
Non sanno nemmeno cosa vuol dire vergognarsi!
Perciò cadranno fra i caduti.
Quando li punirò, inciamperanno’, dice Geova."
(Dal libro di Geremia capitolo 8)
Questi versetti biblici sembrano scritti oggi.
Infatti ben descrivono la situazione mondiale attuale che sta creando "angoscia tra le nazioni".
Tutto il contesto mondiale odierno è l'apice della disastrosa storia dell'umanità, una inconfutabile prova del suo fallimento.
Significa questo che non esiste via d'uscita? No, una speranza c'è ed è sicura perché viene dal nostro Creatore che ha da tempo stabilito il giorno in cui porrà fine e rimedio al disastro causato dall'uomo.
Come lo farà?
Cosa succederà?
La Bibbia lo spiega ed è di importanza vitale, per ognuno di noi, saperlo.
Per approfondire vedi l'articolo:
"CHI PORTERÀ L'UMANITÀ ALLA PACE?"
che trovi online gratuitamente digitando il titolo nella barra di ricerca internet.
Link:
📌
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