#see i love books but i am soooo wordy

[bsaka7]

30 for the book asks!

30. give any 3 book recs to ur followers!

i always feel so awkward giving book recommendations because i never really know what kind of books people like or have read and i don't feel like im a particularly insightful reader although i do think i have at least an interest in books which give me something to think about. Anyway. I will try to choose a few different types. Under the cut because nothing I say will be short. And also thank you!!!!!

1. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

I always feel a bit dumb recommending a book that has won a Pulitzer, because well, you'd assume it won a Pulitzer for a reason. This is Whitehead's second novel to win a Pulitzer. However, I found it to be really, really, really worth it. The Nickel Boys is based off a historic reform school in Florida where a number of unmarked graves have been found, and where Black boys were systemically tortured. It's a dual-narrative book, Elwood Curtis, a business owner in NYC, and Elwood Curtis, a high schooler in the 1960s who gets sent to the reform school. In some ways, it's a dialogue between optimism and cynicism. The world can get better with work. The country is founded on genocide; there is no change. It's a short book -- maybe a little over 200 pages -- and it is really, really worth a read. It's quite different than the other novel of his I've read (The Underground Railroad), and I think I slightly prefer it, but they are both really very good.

2. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.

This is a book I had to read for one of my senior seminar classes for history in college a few years ago. For some reason, I've been thinking about it on-and-off lately, which is a bit ironic, because although it's an excellent read, I had some qualms about some bits of rhetoric and also the conclusion when I read it for class. The other book in the same vein, that I also think about occasionally is Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins which is about the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya and the British colonial response. Say Nothing is about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, investigating the murder of Jean McConville. I think, having also read a sort of worse book in the same investigative vein (see the other book ask I got LOL), that the sort of issues of sources and interviews and the limits and openings of oral histories is one of the most interesting aspects of the text (at least in a how-history-is-done sense). I can't say how the book reads if you have extremely in-depth knowledge on the subject, which I certainly don't, but I think the complexities it presents (on an individual level and beyond), the impressive research (and complications in that process), and the extreme readability (especially for such a heavy subject) make it an interesting and perhaps even useful popular history. I complain about popular history books a lot (it is what it is), but perhaps this one is worth a read.

3. All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1)

One thing about me, which I occasionally try to deny, is that I quite enjoy both fantasy and sci fi (the former a bit more than the latter, though this series is doing something to convince me). I read this for the little bookclub, although it's been a while since we've met, and I think I've read the first four? novellas in the series now. The main character, Murderbot, is a part robot, part human construction serving as a Security Unit. After hacking it's own control unit (governor module), Murderbot wants to watch TV and be left alone. It tries to evade detection...and yet also wants to protect its humans. It's so delightful to sort of experience this awkward prickly robot be forced into realizing that it has connections, that it has things it cares about. I believe Rhu (@traincoded) was the one that said it was tightly plotted, fun scifi and honestly I couldn't agree more. It's fun and yet very engaging and gives you a few things to think about with regards to "humanity" and whatever else you're in the mood for.

#ask game #ask #idk i am not a very good reviewer maybe this will be a little interesting to u at the very least #and thank u for the ask! #see i love books but i am soooo wordy

[hotcinnamonsunset]

okay jumping off of the tags in the ballerina/PT novel (💀) — do you have a your ballet media reclist? signed, former dancer and struggling 🩰

from one former dancer to another, let me tell you. the prospects are grim. (at least if you’re picky. which I definitely am.) (also after I reblogged that post I was already combing over my goodreads to see what ballet books I rated recently to see if they were as bad as I remember lol)

wordy meander below where I try to gather some thoughts coherently🩰:

my preferred type of fiction/writing style is more literary fiction as opposed to quippable “chick lit” (god I hate that term but I feel it gets the point across unfortunately) fiction - so I feel like that’s already a big ask of ballet fiction.

I also (as a former dancer) like there to be some depth to the ballet knowledge presented because I feel that most authors that take on ballet in fiction do it for the “expose the gritty underside of ballet” perspective and they just want to have a female lead that can be cute/little/girly/submissive/etc without even trying to understand that that simply isn’t what all dancers are like. that being said, I do find works where ballerinas just go off being fully unhinged is fun from time to time. ballet and perfectionism can make you do crazy things and the glass in pointe shoes myth didn’t stem from nothing.

furthermore, while I understand that people want to read romance, for some reason if a book is about ballet I want romance to be very inconsequential? maybe it’s because for me ballet is a kind of love that personally never mixed with romance or that there is so much to relationships between dancers that can be so much more engaging than some romance plot about choosing between love and dance or something but most authors don’t feel this way.

all that being said, it’s no small wonder that my rec list of good things is a bit hodge podge. (and sometimes I’ll read things regardless of how bad just because sometimes it’s soooo bad all I can do is laugh)

memoirs are always accurate and enjoyable, albeit obviously not fiction. although! Dancer by Columbia McCann is a fictionalized take on Rudolf Nureyev that reads quite nicely.

fiction really is a mixed bag and often there are ports of stories that’ll be okay even if on the whole it’s not quite up to snuff. like, the last ballet book I read a few weeks ago was The Turnout by Megan Abbott and while I wanted to strangle each of the main characters repeatedly and shake them and ask them why are you like this??? the author had an atmospheric quality to their writing about ballet studios that transported me back to the smells and groans and quirks of old buildings repurposed as dance studios so acutely that I felt more empathy towards the ballet studio in the book as a character more than anything else.

so anyways. according to goodreads some ballet fiction that I did enjoy includes Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo as well as Filthy Animals and The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor, both of which aren’t ballet centric but have genuinely realistic dancer characters.

as for other media…I feel like most things I watch, unless it’s really captivating, go in one eyeball and out the other. that and I’m really bad at watching movies. as for ones I have seen and appreciated though - And Then We Danced is a top one that I can recall, Suspiria is insane but a romp nonetheless, Bird of Paradise is also a bit of a romp.

all this to say if you’ve made it this far I am always always open to recs and suggestions silly and serious because it really is a struggle out there for content like this and we’ve got to stick together.

#asks #dreamofpeppermints #ballet #please tumblr at large come at us with ballet recommendations!!! #thinking about dance movies and in my head it's a scale of cheesy Center Stage to psych horror Black Swan - i need more to fill it out a bi

[soaringeag1e]

So Meg, I’m back 😂 and here are my chapter by chapter thoughts as I’m reading the chapters I have missed. Sit down because it’s long 😂😂 and I apologise in advance it’s a bit scattered 😂

61 oh no poor reader. But I’m glad Dean is there for her and support her 🥺

62 omg when I saw the warnings I was like Dean and the reader are going to get in this massive fight and they are going to be mad at each other and I’m not reading for it and wow they are even a better couple than I had imagined 😂😂 they are just so perfect. Could you find me a Dean please? I need one 😂 and I love the support system they both have. Your writing is soooo good!!

63 even though they didn’t get tuxes, we are soooo close to the wedding!!! I am so excited!!!! It’s sad that Dean had to go to the station but Sam being there for the wedding dress is just too cute and I loved the dress shopping. It’s just so normal and exciting

64 ok, domestic Dean is just the cutest and the best and I can’t believe we saw more of that on the show (not with a girlfriend necessarily but just doing normal stuff in the bunker. Anyways I’m digressing 😂). I am right at the moment when Bobby saw the tape and you are horrible to cut it there!

OMG I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT HOW COULD YOU MEG??!! Why couldn’t they just have a nice meal and evening?? Why did you have to ruin it!!!! 😭😭 That is literally the worst ending for a chapter and thank god I don’t need to wait a week to read the next one!! You better make it up! 😂

65 excuse me Meg but how dare you put so much suspense and anxiety in one chapter? Are you trying to kill me??!! The reader and now Dean are in the hands of this killer??!! I need more info NOW!! (And I will have them because I’m going to read the next chapter 😂)

66 I knew it!!! He has been shady the whole time! How didn’t anybody suspect him??!! Omg he is just sick. He’s absolutely crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever despised somebody in a written series as much as him.

How did it get so bad in the span of a few chapters?? 😂 omg Meg. First of all, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your writing is exceptional. I’m really immersed in the story every time and I can’t let go of the chapters and this story. Second, how could you??!! It was all going well and now, we don’t know where the reader is going with the son of a bitch, Dean is bleeding in a barn, and the police is nowhere in sight 😭😭😭 I think you are trying to give us a heart attack. Third, I hope the next chapter is coming out soon because I need them both alive and having their wedding and to put this behind them. I’m too invested now!

After this massive rant, I can’t wait to read the next chapters and see how this will end - hopefully with a happy ending I’m watching you

I hope you are doing well and sending you lots of love xx Mel

Oh, my amazing, Mel! Your timing is impeccable, my love. Seriously, you have no idea how bad I needed this smile today.

All your reviews....

1} If we could each find a Dean for each other, that would be great! I'll keep a lookout, but you need to keep a lookout for me too!

2} I'm glad you liked having Sam at the dress shopping. I thought it'd be cute, especially considering they have been friends for a while.

3} I also love domestic Dean. I think a lot of us do and that's why we get to live that fantasy life through our fics. We get to give him the life he deserves.

4} You know I love my cliff hangers {Evil laughter}

5} Of course I had to have this cute, lovey dovey moment and make everyone think that it was all going to be ok! Hahaha

Sadly, I'm afraid that you saw the last of the fluff when Dean called her at his car. I seemed to get pretty wordy and the entire thing that unravels now seemed to go on for a bit longer than I expected, so....more angst is ahead.

I don't know how you do it, but you always, ALWAYS bring a smile to my face and you make me feel like I could actually fulfill my dream someday and publish a book, or more. Even with all the sweet words and praises it's hard to believe your own stuff, you know.

Eventually, though. I will hold a hard copy of my work in my hands.

I'm glad you're home safe and I hope you had an amazing Holiday! But I am definitely {selfishly} glad you're back haha You're the best, Mel XOXOXO

#Meg loves Mel #Made my week #SPNFamily

[flying-elliska]

salut ellie! someone once asked you about your writing and you recommended falling in love with language and finding ways of writing you love. i was wondering, what books and/or writing styles are you in love with? it's just so interesting to know what somehow had an impact on the way you're writing bc i honestly adore your style

wow do you remember that ? that is such a flattering question oh my god. well, i’m still working on it. some of my favorites are (i’m very eclectic lmao) : 

- His Dark Materials (it’s a fantasy book series ‘for kids’ but it’s actually insanely deep and philosophic) is pretty much the first book series that made me fall in love with stories, and made me want to write. I think I found it when I was 10, and it completely shaped me. It’s so ambitious and clever, it never talks down to the reader, brings up those amazing worlds and philosophical concepts and is still accessible to kids. Most of all it is so committed to atmosphere, to making it vivid, to really make you go through what the characters are. I’m thinking of it and I can remember exactly certain passages in an almost sensory way : the witch Serafina Pekkala describing what it feels like to feel the Aurora Borealis on her bare skin as she is flying through the arctic. The polar bear Iorek giving Lyra frozen moss to help bandage his wounds after a battle. The grilled poppy heads that the Jordan College scholars at Oxford eat during a meeting. The little Gallivespians on their dragonflies and the way the sun reflects off their poisonous spurs. That’s how you make a story stick ; that’s how you can put in deep stuff without ever making it boring. I am so excited they’re making a tv series because that shit deserves some recognition. And I mean the whole plot about the importance of stories, free will, the horror of religious fundamentalism....always relevant. Philip Pullman’s stuff is great in general, I love his Sally Lockhart series, which is more adult and adventure focused, and is a great deal of fun. And of course, the sequel to HDM he’s been putting out recently. 

- I spent a lot of my teen years reading either crime novels or historical novels. (When I think of some of the stuff I read when I was 13 I’m like oh my god what were my parents doing lmao some of that was really horrible.) And I think it gave me a good feeling for suspense and setting, and how important tension is. One of my all time faves is Andrea Japp. She is a French writer who does mostly crime, involving complex/monstrous woman characters and a very sensory, poetic approach to language, often involving food, plants and poisons. My favorite by her is the “Season of the Beast”/Agnès de Souarcy chronicles, which is a crime series set in medieval times, with a cool independent lady at its core, crimes in a monastery, and this very gloomy end of times vibe that I love. I also read a lot of Scandi Noir stuff, I love the kind of ...laconic approach to life. And again : vibe. Vibe is so important. And Sherlock Holmes stories. I love the Mary Russell series that take place in that universe and are basically a big Mary Sue self insert guilty pleasure but are just. So much fun. 

- I like poetry a lot - not stuff that is too wordy, but something short, sharp and vivid. i think reading poetry is essential to feeding your inner ‘metaphor culture’. I love Mary Oliver. Rimbaud, too, that I read at 17 and rocked my world. One of my underrated faves is  Hồ Xuân Hương, a Vietnamese poet from the 18th century who was adept at using nature metaphors to hide both erotic stuff, irreverent jokes, and political criticism, and correspond with all the great scholars of her time under a pseudonym. Badass.  Recently I bought ‘Soft Science’ by Franny Choi, which is about cyborgs, having a female body, emotions and politics and it’s absolutely brilliant. 

- I love reading fairy tales, too. Currently reading (i always read a lot of books at once lol) Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales, basically fairy tales for grown ups, collected from folklore all over the world, with an amazing kind of gruesome humor and wisdom. Norse mythology is also so damn funny. That one bit with Thor dressing up as a bride or Loki’s shenanigans...amazing. And I like fantasy, I find it very soothing to read for some reason, my fave has to be Robin Hobb and her Realm of the Elderlings series. And Terry Pratchett, especially the series with Death or the Witches. Just brilliant. Neil Gaiman too. 

- I tend to be very impatient when it comes to literary fiction, I find a lot of it is self-indulgent, dreary. I’m a genre reader through and through, I need to be amazed. I loved ‘the Elegance of the Hedgehog’ by Muriel Barbery though. Some stuff by Amélie Nothomb, Virginie Despentes occasionally (they’re French writers with a very dark, wry approach to life, tho the first is more polished acid and the second very punk rock). And ‘Special Topics in Calamity Physics’ by Marisha Pessl is pretentious as hell but a lot of fun, if you like dark academia. Salman Rushdie has a way with language that is amazing. 

- I read a lot of non-fiction. At the moment : the Cabaret of Plants (about the symbolic/socio historical meaning of plants and how they shaped history) by Richard Mabey and ‘Feminist Fight Club’ by Jessica Bennett. One I absolutely love is ‘the Botany of Desire’ by Michael Pollan in which he traces the history of four plant species (apple, potato, cannabis, tulip) and how they impacted us as much as we impacted them. I was obsessed with plants for most of my life as you can see lol (my mother is a herbalist and I wanted to become a botanist for quite a while.). Also philosophy/anthropology in little bits. I love Tim Ingold. Things about witches. Anything by Rebecca Solnit is incredible. 

- I’ve been reading a lot of YA recently, because it’s fun and quick and keeps me reading, and has a lot of good female characters. Big fave recently : Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore. It’s about a young bisexual woman who’s grieving and comes to this weird house full of doors, each of which leads to a different path in life, and we follow her through each choice she can potentially make, each of one becomes a different genre of story : creepy ghost story, spy story, sci-fi, cute romance, etc. It’s so innovative and it’s a story that is also bisexual culture at its core. Also I absolutely love love love love love (etc forever) the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. What she does with language is just so cool, because she stays simple and efficient but uses her metaphors in such a fulgurant, vivid way. Some of her lines are just. bam! genius. #goals. Also Ronan Lynch is probably THE character that helped me the most with my coming out. He’s one of my forever faves.  Of course Harry Potter, lmao, I was of the generation that pretty much grew up with him, the last book came out when I was 17. JK Rowling really should just stop rn. But I learned so much from those, about the importance of making your story feel like home, and having a clear emotional journey. And Harry is such a sarcastic little shit, I love him. And I love a Series of Unfortunate Events too, the darkly funny tone of it, the celebration of knowledge and resilience. 

- I think in terms of the classics (I had to read in school lmao), I do like Victor Hugo a lot even though some of his stuff just doesn’t fucking stop. I also like Balzac and his Comédie Humaine, he’s very observant, mean and funny when it comes to people (even though it’s depressing.) Colette is my grandma’s fave writer and she is a rockstar, I love her (also hella bi culture). Jane Austen is great, I read Pride and Prejudice in one night straight, I was so hooked. Love Jane Eyre too. I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac while hopped up on opioid pain killers and that’s probably the only way to appreciate it, but it did mark me.  

- But to be completely fucking candid, I probably read the most fanfic nowadays still. Esp since I got to college, I need to unwind when I read, and having characters you already know can be so comforting. Now, of course, there’s a lot of fanfic that is just fluff (nothing wrong with that) but I honestly really believe in the literary value of fanfic. Because some of that shit simply just really slaps and is well written. But also as a genre on its own : you just simply don’t get so much emotional nuance, and depth in most other things. Because these are characters we already know and the writers are not afraid to be self-indulgent and plot is secondary, we see shades of things that we never see anywhere else, we see relationships developping in the small things and wow that shit is breathtaking, bro, sometimes. The art of infinite variation on a theme. Even though a lot of fic writers could use a bit of stricter editing, and do stuff a bit too many unnecessary details in here, so does Victor Hugo soooooooo....

lol i could go on forever. i love book soooo much. uni kinda killed my reading appetite, I used to read several books a week when I was in middle school. hope i can get back there (although maybe not as much bc i have a life now lol.) but thinking about everything i have yet to read makes me sooooo happy. I want to get more into sci-fi, English lit classics. Basically I like stuff that’s witty, dark, political, hedonistic, with dry humor, but a warm heart. Stories that celebrate knowledge, curiosity and human weirdness. And that gets to the point. When I get bored by a book, I put it down, because I just don’t have the time. I also hate writers where you can tell that they think they’re better than other people. Misanthropy is boring. Thank you for this question anon I had a blast

#reading #books #book recs #literature #anon asks