#what lois lowry remembers

[quotesfrommyreading]

Literature, for all of us, is a way that we rehearse life. And, of course, I don’t have that much life left. I’ve already experienced everything that one can experience. But kids who are ten years old, they have it all in front of them, and some of it is going to be very, very hard. When they read about people experiencing those hard things, they rehearse how they would react, feeling it without having to truly feel it yet. It serves a valid purpose for them.

  —  What Lois Lowry Remembers

#lois lowry #what lois lowry remembers #authors #literature #books #reading #children #learning #life #living #psychology #child development

[larkandkatydid]

Speaking of books: I think you mentioned reading A Little Life at some point, have you? If so I would love to hear your thoughts. I read it in 2016 and have, for lack of other words, remembered it ever since.

I’m only about 150 pages so I feel like I’m too early to have a truly informed impression but my main opinion is that the takes that it “reads like fanfic” are true but uncharitable. It reads like fanfic but also like On the Road or Moll Flanders or those Robert Cormier/Lois Lowry books about dying kids. It’s a capital-R Romantic tragedy about love in the face of suffering. So, I think if people are looking for a gritty, authentic chronicle of a realistic person’s gritty,warts-and-all experience with trauma and mental illness then they could easily be disappointed, but that’s very clearly not what it’s trying to be.

Which I guess is a great lead-in to the question that the fucking illiterate rabble keep bringing to my book post like they are going to trip me up: Is it ‘okay’ if a middle schooler read A Little Life? And my now more informed answer is hell yes! That’s possibly the ideal age! This book has exactly the kind of writing that a twelve year old is going to absolutely love. Even something as simple as the descriptions of the cheap pho the characters eat together or the details of their bohemian New York walk-ups are the kinds of details that my little tween self would have memorized, probably while singing along to the RENT soundtrack.

[holdoncallfailed]

can you do a longlist of the books about strong girl protags and female friendships, etc. that were really impactful/your favorites so i know what to gift/rec any young girls in my life?

aww!! i would literally love nothing more than to compile such a list ty anon. i tried to put them in an order vaguely representative of youngest audiences to older...i'm not sure how well some of these would hold up in 2023 but they're all ones i remember enjoying and having an impact on me somehow...

not one damsel in distress by jane yolen

the daring book for girls by andrea j. buchanan & miriam peskowitz

the whole dear america series!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the ordinary princess by m. m. kaye

the caddie woodlawn series by carol ryrie brink

walk two moons by sharon creech (i used to have whole passages of this book memorized because i read it so often...potentially the most formative one on this list)

because of winn-dixie by kate dicamillo

the scholastic encyclopedia of U.S. women by sheila keenan (my elementary school art teacher had this book in her classroom library and i remember flipping through it when i was hanging around after school while my mom was doing PTA stuff...it was the first time i'd heard of so many of those women and further stoked my interest in history. i remember being so disturbed [and also intrigued] by the entry about ethel rosenberg specifically. i'm sure there are more updated versions of the book but this is the particular edition i remember reading.)

the penderwick sisters series by jeanne birdsall

bloomability by sharon creech

everything on a waffle by polly horvath

the tracy beaker series by jacqueline wilson

the outcasts of 19 schuyler place by e. l. konigsburg (also extremely formative)

saffy's angel / the whole casson family series by hilary mckay (i used to carry these books around with me as if they were security blankets)

p.s. longer letter later and snail mail no more by paula danziger & ann m. martin

the secret language of girls by frances o'roarke dowell

the tail of emily windsnap by liz kessler

savvy by ingrid law

love, stargirl by jerry spinelli (idk if any book had more of an impact on me as a child tbh like this rocked my world so completely i still think about it/quote it all the time. i know a lot of people read stargirl in school and honestly i don't think it's that good but the sequel is so underrated. so read it.)

a perfect gentle knight by kit pearson

feathers by jacqueline woodson

habibi by naomi shihab nye

the anastasia krupnik series by lois lowry

criss cross by lynne rae perkins

ella enchanted by gail carson levine........OBVIOUSLY

esperanza rising by pam muñoz ryan

kira-kira by cynthia kadohata

the city of ember by jeanne duprau

bad girls by cynthia voigt (tbh i REALLY don't know how this one holds up but i remember thinking it was pretty edgy as a kid)

little women by louisa may alcott

hurt go happy by ginny rorby

persepolis by marjane satrapi (obviously for slightly older readers)

the aforementioned rookie yearbook, natch. (also older)

#Anonymous

[such-a-barbarian]

Weekly Tag Wednesday Thursday

Another Wednesday has come and gone. So here I am on Thursday as usual. Thanks as always to @mybrainismelted and @jrooc for the tags!

how is your day going? It's still kinda early, but overall is shaping up to be a decent one.

are you okay? I mean, yeah, for the most part.

what is your favourite shade of your favourite colour? I don't really have a favourite colour? Is that weird? Like colours are great?

are you single? Nope. Been married for 5 years, together for 15.

are you happy about that? I am. He's a pretty cool dude. Having kids has definitely made things hard, but he's my person, so we put in the effort to make it work.

what age do you feel in your brain? vaguely my current age I guess? I mean there are definitely times when I feel like there is no way I could possibly be in my late 30s (seriously, how the fuck did that happen?!) but also I've lived a lot of life and learned a lot of things, so when I think about the person I was in my 20s or even early 30s it feels very different now.

do you feel like the good times are behind you or ahead of you? Can I be in them? Can they just be all the time? I am an eternal optimist, even when things are hard I will find the good times somehow/somewhere!

do you have a best friend? Not really. I have a few close friends that I adore, but we don’t really consider each other best friends.

did you have a childhood pet? I had a fish called Wanda. 🐠 lol.

do you sing or whistle around the house? I am constantly singing random shit to my kids. Be it singing a task in the tune of Baby Shark (put on your shoes...doo, doo, doo...) or the latest Ms. Rachel hit, there is always something I'd rather not be singing stuck in my head. lol

do you light candles or incense? Candles on occasion, but I am very terrible at remembering to blow them out and I'd rather not burn my house down so it's very rare.

are you busy Friday night? My parents are coming into town tonight, so hubby and I might try a date night while my folks are on kid duty.

if you were a circus performer which act would you be in? Funny story in my grade 9 careers class we had to take a careers quiz and my results came back that I should be a circus performer. Didn't tell me what kind of circus performer, just that I should be one.... 🤷🏻‍♀️

what is your favourite outfit? leggings and an oversized hoodie.

what's the last thing you created? Don't really have time for my own creating as of late. Made a pretty awesome wizard's hat for my kiddo the other day though. 🧙‍♂️

what is your favourite fic or book of all time? Favourite book is probably The Giver by Lois Lowry mostly because it changed the way I thought about reading. It was like a gateway drug for me and opened me up to the wonderful world of reading! Holds a special place for sure. As for fics that is hard, so many good ones to choose from but I re-read Cooperative Game at least once a year, so I gotta pick it!

what are you looking forward to? Just summer in general! I have two family weddings this year and we have lots of travel and camping planned!

what can put you immediately in a better mood? My kiddos giggles and hugs. Sunshine.

do you like hugs? Love them. I am a big hugger!

what is something you wish people understood about you? I don’t know. I feel like I’m a pretty open book. What ya see is what ya get.

Tagging you if you are reading this! Also it’s lunch time and I’m hungry so tagging people seems like a lot effort right now….

#tag game #about me

[lordgolden]

Favourite non-fantasy books?

Great question lol I really haven’t read too many non fantasy books lately. I really love Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I remember reading that in high school and it made a huge impact on me. I’d love to read it again as an adult to see what I get out of it now. The Giver by Lois Lowry was another favorite of mine when I was younger.

One of the only recent non fantasy books I’ve read is the memoir Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It was amazing, and I highly recommend. When I read it in law school I was already on the public interest law track, but reading that book really solidified my career path.

#ask #anon

[sliverswords]

2, 3, 5, 25, and 26

show us a picture of your handwriting?

films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of? - October Sky, The Prince of Egypt, My Fair Lady - if you can’t tell I love musicals lol

what’s an inside joke you have with your family or friends? - my sister uses multiple question marks (???) on a regular and it really annoys me so she threatened to put it on my gravestone which devolved into my whole family saying they’re gonna do it. So like for my Dad it’d be like “beloved father?? Son?? Grandfather???” Just to confuse future archeologists and kids that hang in graveyards

what made you start your blog? - as I said to Knight I got access to my email but before that my actual reasoning desire to have a blog I don’t remember. And once I stated my blog my initial goals changed a whole lot as I adapted to Tumblr culture I’m happy with my blog as it is now tho

fave season and why? - i like spring and fall equally because those are the seasons during cross and track season and when the perfect running weather is (60’s and rain)

fave colour and why? - Woad Blue specifically tho I’ve always liked blue in general. The specific color is because of “Gathering Blue” by Lois Lowry where this specific blue plays an important role

#I already answered 3 and 5 for Knight so I’m throwing in 4 #Bee! #ask #ask game

[isfjmel-phleg]

March 2023 Books

(@lady-merian I do talk about reading the first L&C book, please feel free to ignore)

The In-Between by Rebecca Ansari

A fascinating fantastical premise to account for a real-world case of missing children. A bit dark but I did enjoy reading this.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (reread)

Annual reread! You all know how I feel about this book.

The Secret Garden: The Cinematic Novel by Linda Chapman (reread)

Reread after watching the movie again, because I was curious how they compare. I originally read this before the movie came out. There were definitely parts of the novelization that are absent in the film, and the book does a more thorough job of explaining this. But on the whole they are pretty similar.

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (reread)

I remember reading an excerpt from this book in one of our elementary school readers. It's been a while since I read the whole book, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I wish I had read it as a child.

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber A. Logan

The Japanese setting was this book's strength. As a retelling, however, I didn't love it. It transformed the story into a generic tale of a rather bland woman processing her grief and working through baggage from her past while on a mysterious photography job in Japan. It retained the basic beats of TSG but not so much the spirit of the story (which is not about healing from grief, why is that so hard to understand) or characters.

Messenger and Son by Lois Lowry

I don't know what the heck is going on in these stories' universe, and Messenger was rather bizarre and depressing, but Son had some interesting themes and proved a satisfying ending to the series.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter (reread)

Reread for TSG season.

I love this retelling, but this time it struck me that I'm not especially crazy about Potter's choices in depicting her Dickon analogue. He's clearly designed to be a heartthrob (brooding nature boy! mysterious past! possibly one of the fae! ponytail!), maybe more that than a parallel to Dickon's actual role in the original. It doesn't ruin the book for me at all, but this time...I was kind of mentally rolling my eyes.

The Making of May by Gwyneth Rees

I wouldn't call this a retelling of TSG, because it isn't, but it interacts with that text and draws inspiration from it. The young heroine is particularly attached to a film version of TSG (clearly the 1975 miniseries) that she has on VHS, she identifies a lot with Mary, and like Mary she has a lot of growing to do in a mysterious old house with walled gardens. A more enjoyable book than I expected.

A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

A retelling of TSG in a modern setting with a Pakistani heroine coming to live in Long Island. The cultural setting and many of the plot points are significantly different from the original, but very much in the same spirit. Riazi clearly loves and respects the original text while breathing her own fresh life into it. The blend of poetry interspersed with the prose that forms the majority of the narrative is a bold but effective choice. It enhances the emotion and gives insight into the heroine that we wouldn't have otherwise. I enjoyed this one more than I expected. Thank you for the recommendation, @allieinarden!

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (reread)

Reread in a rush for a reading group.

The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy

Seredy's books take me off guard with how powerful they can be. This one was no exception.

A Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz

This was not good. I knew it was not going to be good. I read it anyway. I regret that.

A retelling should honor the spirit of the original while bringing something fresh and original to the story. This book did not do that. This Sara, Mary, and Cedric bore almost no resemblance to their original counterparts, and themes from Burnett's stories are discarded, even disdained. For some reason, the story is set in the 1860s, decades before Burnett's books were published/set, but little or no historical research seems to have been done, and the result was not very believable in its portrayal of nineteenth-century England. The plot is all over the place, and the romances are painfully forced. I was not impressed.

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

I really liked it! (...maybe not for the same reasons as everybody else, sorry, I am not swooning over anyone.) Stroud's prose is fantastic, and he turns the most effortlessly inventive similes. The characters are well-developed, and the story, even though it's not the type of plot I would normally seek out, is quite readable. I plan to finish the series.

The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir (reread)

Reread for TSG season.

A Treason of Thorns by Laura E. Weymouth

A friend has been on my case about forming a book club between the two of us, and she wanted me to pick the first book, something I hadn't read before. I arbitrarily selected this one, which was on my shelves. I regretted it. I wanted to love it, it has such a pretty cover, but I couldn't connect with the heroine and her motivations, and the pseudo-historical setting was distractingly implausible for me.

Mystery of the Black Diamonds and Mystery of the Green Cat by Phyllis A. Whitney

Black Diamonds hasn't aged well and has a bit of a far-fetched plot, but Green Cat was quite enjoyable. I appreciate how Whitney weaves her mystery plots with more interpersonally-focused plots that bring additional investment in the characters.

#random personal stuff

[becomethebooks]

1,3,4,7,16,19,20,30,38,39,42,50,51,53,70,

I wouldn’t be able to answer this but I want to know if you can #77

79,80,86,102, 103, 106, 130

This is one of my own questions: is there a book that changed you mind about an opinion that you once had?

And is there a book that you wish you could switch places with one of the characters?

Loved these questions :)

1- a book that is close to your heart: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

3- a stand-alone that you wish was part of a series: Eleanor and Park!!! It needs a sequel lmao All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater is also so good I wish it had more.

4- a poetry book that reads like a story: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I grew up with this book and I found it cute when I was younger but now I realize how fucked up it is lol

7- a book you did not finish: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I tried I really tried is all I can say.

16- a book you'd recommend to your younger self: The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo. I read this too late in life for it to have the impact it would have, it came off a bit pretentious. Younger me would benefit from it better.

19- a book that put you into a reading slump: “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer because that book was so so intense

20- a book that got you out of a reading slump: “Tell No One” by Harlan Coben

30- your favorite middle grade book: Maggie Steifvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series was my favorite for a looong time.

38- your favorite series: I think right now it’s the Legendborn series. I really love the characters and I’m excited when I think about it. But also the We Hunt the Flame duology was soooo well done. I loved the villain.

39- a book featuring your favorite character: Altair from We Hunt the Flame/We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

42- a book that made you want to scream by the time you got to the end: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because WHYYYY EVELYNNNN WHYYYYYY

50- a book that made you cry a LOT: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven …because BRO!!!!

51- a book that you found underwhelming: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

53- a popular book/series that you hate: The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Literally WHAT made this book series so popular?!?!

70- your favorite poetry collection: cant say I have a favorite collection but I love e.e. cummings’ and Rainer Maria Rilke’s works

77- a book so useless that you could use it as a coaster: I think you’d agree with me when I say Breathless by Jennifer Niven lmaooo

79- A book that reminds you of your favorite song: My current favorite song is “Bloom” by The Paper Kites, which reminds me of The Raven Cycle series because it reminds me of Adam and Ronan, precious boys.

80- a book that reminds you of a loved one: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

86- a book with an insane plot twist: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I remember reading the twist and my jaw dropping lol

102- your favorite dark academia read: Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Still very obsessed with it even though I remember nothing about it lol.

103- a book that deals with heavy topics: Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi. It’s a future sci-fi based on a post-pandemic Earth. I found it so fascinating and even almost prophetic. Very subtly gut-wrenching.

106- a book that made you squeamish: Theres this one scene in Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro that I CANNOT get out of my head months after reading it

130- a book featuring flashbacks and/or intersecting storylines: East of Eden by John Steinbeck does this SUPERBLY.

Your own question- Is there a book that changed your mind about an opinion you once had? When I was younger (like early middle school), I read “The Giver” by Lois Lowry and it was my first Utopian-Dystopian book. I used to think Utopia’s were good and that we as a society should strive for them, but after reading The Giver it opened my eyes to the reality of human drive to evil.

Your 2nd question- And is there a book that you wish you could switch places with one of the characters? This is a haaaard one. I don’t think there is one, or maybe I haven’t read something where I wish I was in that world. If manga counts, Inuyasha FOR SURE!!!!!! Lol

#asks #ask #I'm sure some of this is new for you lol

[annemariewrites]

List of all the books I’ve read

just wanted to keep a list of what I’ve read throughout my life (that I can remember)

Fiction:

“The Outsiders,” SE Hinton

“The Weirdo,” Theodore Taylor

“The Devil’s Arithmetic,” Jane Yolen

“Julie of the Wolves series,” Jean Craighead George

“Soft Rain,” Cornelia Cornelissen

“Island of the Blue Dolphins,” Scott O’Dell

“The Twilight series,” Stephanie Mayer

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee

“Gamer Girl,” Mari Mancusi

“Redwall / Mossflower / Mattimeo / Mariel of Redwall,” Brian Jacques

“1984,” and  “Animal Farm,” George Orwell

“Killing Mr. Griffin,” Lois Duncan

“Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain

“Rainbow’s End,” Irene Hannon

“Cold Mountain,” Charles Frazier

“Between Shades of Gray,” Ruta Sepetys

“Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” Edgar Allen Poe

“Lord of the Flies,” William Golding

“The Great Gatsby,” F Scott Fitzgerald

“The Harry Potter series,” JK Rowling

“The Fault in Our Stars,” “Looking for Alaska,” and “Paper Towns,” John Green

“Thirteen Reasons Why,” Jay Asher

“The Hunger Games series,” Suzanne Collins

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Stephen Chbosky

“Fifty Shades of Grey,” EL James

“Speak,” and “Wintergirls,” Laurie Halse Anderson

“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood

“Mama Day,” Gloria Naylor

“Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte

“Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys

“The Haunting of Hill House,” Shirley Jackson

“The Chosen,” Chaim Potok

“Leaves of Grass,” Walt Whitman

“Till We Have Faces,” CS Lewis

“One Foot in Eden,” Ron Rash

“Jim the Boy,” Tony Earley

“The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox,” Maggie O’Farrell

“A Land More Kind Than Home,” Wiley Cash

“A Parchment of Leaves,” Silas House

“Beowulf,” Seamus Heaney

“The Silence of the Lambs / Red Dragon / Hannibal / Hannibal Rinsing,” Thomas Harris

“Cry the Beloved Country,” Alan Paton

“Moby Dick,” Herman Melville

“The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings trilogy / The Silmarillion,” JRR Tolkien

“Beren and Luthien,” JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

“Children of Blood and Bone / Children of Virtue and Vengeance,” Tomi Adeyemi

“Soundless,” Richelle Mead

“The Girl with the Louding Voice,” Abi Dare

“A Song of Ice and Fire series / Fire and Blood,” GRR Martin

“A Separate Peace,” John Knowles

“The Bluest Eye,” and “Beloved,” Toni Morrison

“Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley

“The Giver / Gathering Blue / Messenger / Son,” Lois Lowry

“The Ivory Carver trilogy,” Sue Harrison

“The Grapes of Wrath,” and “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck

“The God of Small Things,” Arundhati Roy

“Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury

“The Night Circus,” Erin Morgenstern

“Sunflower Dog,” Kevin Winchester

“The Catcher in the Rye,” JD Salinger

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie

“The Good Girl,” Mary Kubica 

“The Last Unicorn,” Peter S Beagle

“Slaughterhouse Five,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr

“The Joy Luck Club,” Amy Tan

“The Sworn Virgin,” Kristopher Dukes

“The Color Purple,” Alice Walker

“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Zora Neale Hurston

“The Light Between Oceans,” ML Stedman

“Yellowface,” RF Kuang

“A Flicker in the Dark,” Stacy Willingham

“One Piece Novel: Ace’s Story,” Sho Hinata

Non-fiction:

“Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl,” Anne Frank

“Night,” Elie Wiesel

“Invisible Sisters,” Jessica Handler

“I Am Malala,” Malala Yousafzai

“The Interesting Narrative,” Olaudah Equiano

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs

“The Princess Diarist,” Carrie Fisher

“Adulting: How to Become a Grown Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps,” Kelly Williams Brown

“How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Dale Carnegie

“Carrie Fisher: a Life on the Edge,” Sheila Weller

“Make ‘Em Laugh,” Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway

“How to be an Anti-Racist,” Ibram X Kendi

“Maus,” Art Spiegelman

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou

“Wise Gals: the Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage,” Nathalia Holt

“Persepolis,” and “Persepolis II,” Marjane Satrapi

“How to Write a Novel,” Manuel Komroff

“The Nazi Genocide of the Roma,” Anton Weiss-Wendt

“Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz,” Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel

#books #some of these I read for school assignments and some I read of my own volition #some I read when I was a young teenager many years ago and some I read just this past month #somewhat in order of which I read them #some of these I have read more than once #for the record I work at a library which is how I'm able to access so many books #support your local library #also just because I read these books doesn't necessarily mean that I would recommend all of them to just anyone #don't come at me for reading 'problematic' books please #I was an english major in college and didn't get to choose a lot of what I read #but even the ones I was forced to read I'm glad that I read them #I don't really regret reading any of these; even the one's that I didn't like #I will add to the list whenever I finish a book #annemariereads

[quotesfrommyreading]

When he died, a friend of mine who was a Shakespearean actor sent me a quotation from “Macbeth.” In the play, Macduff gets the news that his wife and children have been killed, and he becomes inconsolable and incoherent. Another character says to him, “Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.” And I think that’s true. I think it’s something that literature does, that writing does, that speaking about things does. It keeps our hearts from breaking.

  —  What Lois Lowry Remembers

#lois lowry #what lois lowry remembers #authors #literature #books #reading #writing #drama #shakespeare #macbeth #grief #loss #communication

[exlibrisfangirl]

Seventeen People, Seventeen Questions

Thank you, Kat! @englishgradinrepair 💛

nickname // Mel

height // 5’6"

sign // Capricorn, but I don't follow astrology.

no. of followers // Uhhh... 2,612??? Who ARE you people, and WHY are you here?!

last thing i googled // "What does QPR stand for" because we're doing QPR training at work tomorrow, and I couldn't remember. (It stands for "Question, Persuade, Refer", in case you were wondering. It's a suicide prevention training program.)

amount of sleep // About 6 hours, I think?

song stuck in my head // "Far From Home" by Five Finger Death Punch (It was the exit song on an episode of Criminal Minds I watched yesterday.)

lucky number // 8

dream job // Writer

wearing // Boots, jeans, North Face hoodie.

movies/books that summarize you // Dead Poets Society, Ever After, Matilda, A Little Princess (1987 or 1995), Beauty & The Beast (Disney), Little Women (1994 or 2019), BBC's Sense and Sensibility (2008), BBC's Pride and Prejudice (1995) / "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard, "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman, "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brönte, "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery... there are SO very many...

aesthetic // Naturecore + Dark Academia + a dash of Whimsy

favorite song // I could no sooner pick a favorite star in the heavens... but "The Bones" by Maren Morris (feat. Hozier) is one of my current jams.

favorite authors // Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Bill Bryson, Robin McKinley, Juliet Marillier, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Mary Oliver, idk... this is sooo haaaaard...

favorite animal noise // The sound of my cat purring.

random // My parents just got a 4-month-old shih-tzu puppy!

LOOKIT HIM SERIOUS LIL FACE

Tag, you're it: @angel-in-a-big-blue-box @oddwriter @magic-multicolored-miracle @melphelia @takadasaiko @sterekxhale @awlwren @greyhavenisback @ardricael @seven-oomen @dreamersscape @glitterinlowgravity @woozapooza @shieldmaidenofsherwood @qayalec @oftincturedwords @summerseachild

#englishgradinrepair #tumblr friends #answered ask #ask meme #about mel #personal post

[fioreofthemarch]

Get to know your writer: I would love to know about your process for 2, 13, and 17. ☺️

✨oh yay thank you!!

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

I always have an outline, think Wikipedia 'Plot' section level of detail. But I try to keep things loose and adapt if the story is naturally going a different way.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

I think I remember reading Lois Lowry (The Giver) advising writers to to start the story as close to the action as possible. It doesn't always apply but I like to keep it in mind. Been enjoying trying to make the first 1-2 sentences really punchy.

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Music helps, but I've always been a grit-your-teeth-and-bear-it writer. Throw away the need for it to be good and just get something on the page. It's easier to improve on garbage than it is to create perfection out of nothing. When I'm really stuck I go back to who the characters are -- what drives them, what frustrates them, and what situations would combine the two.

#asks #fic writer asks #writing #I'm a technical writer by trade so my life is just getting SOMETHING down and letting the editing process fix it

[awhiskeyriver]

Favorite books? (Other than the hunger games, ofc)

Ugh, this is hard. Some categories...

Classics:

-Emma by Jane Austin

-Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (bc I'm basic)

-The Giver by Lois Lowry

-Watership Down by Richard Adams

-Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Contemporary YA:

-Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

-Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

-Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

-The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Adult:

-Always to Remember by Lorraine Heath (one of the BEST books I've ever read, period. Such a gorgeous love story about misunderstandings, judgement and understanding. (**trigger warning: mentions of war-related abuse/torture**)

-Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath

-Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

-It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (**trigger warning: domestic violence**)

-All the Ugly & Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood (**trigger warning: underage sex**)

-Where the Crawdad's Sing (although I'm finding out more problematic shit about the author so LE SIGH I feel a bit bad reccing this one) by Delia Owens

Light-Hearted Romance:

-The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

-The Wedding Date Series by Jasmine Guillory

-The Jock Hard Series by Sara Ney

-Off Campus Series by Elle Kennedy

Dirty, Trashy yet Addicting

-Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon (okay its literal alien smut but the story lines are so cute?? idk I was a sucker for them...all like 18 of them LOL)

There are most definitely more, but these were what came to mind off the top of my head!

-

#anon #ask me anything game #ask #book recommendations

[secretlyatargaryen]

Sorry T.T

What are your favorite books to teach? I would find it very hard to teach about a book tbh!

Also for some context (because I will not get your references probably), I'm not uncultured is just that I'm not from an english speaking country so I haven't read most of american/british classics (I haven't read Lord of the Flies either but I saw the movie as a kid and it kinda traumatized me). I only read Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe and the Brontës.

Lol I didn't think you were uncultured! Lord of the Flies is one of those books I would kinda like to reread as an adult because most of what I remember about it was how we all talked about how traumatizing it was for us in school, but I secretly liked it. (I was the kid who liked most books I was assigned to read in school, except I hated the Great Gatsby lol. When I reread it in preparation for teaching it I liked it, but probably wouldn't choose to teach it again.) Also I remember the black and white movie of LotF, which is scary in the way that old films are scary to kids on top of the subject matter.

My favorite book to teach when I taught high school was The Crucible. The reason I specified a difference between my favorite books and books which are my favorites to teach is because I hated teaching Mark Twain but LOVE teaching the Crucible. Although I also love that book. It's a play, so if you never had the experience of reading it aloud in school, the best way to experience it is probably by watching the movie adaptation with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder.

Books I love teaching for middle school/upper elementary are

The Giver, Lois Lowry

The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton

Holes, Louis Sachar

The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis

I don't want to ever teach high school again, but I DO miss teaching the Crucible.

[dewdropsonpluto]

I watched The Giver again the other day and I just need to say that one of the most beautiful montages I've ever seen is the scene where Jonas crosses the barrier of memory and everyone in the community remembers what the world was like before communities, and see these splashes of different religions, cultures, people, landscapes, celebrations, lights, mourning, grief, joy, sadness, anger, war, disaster, love, sickness, charity, and so so so much more.

If you haven't seen it:

The Giver is such a powerful story both in the book by Lois Lowry and the movie. It's one of the most well done dystopian novels in my opinion. I love that the dystopia IS a utopia. It's perfect. Everyone is at peace, they live their lives, they contribute to the communities that they are in and they come up with peaceful solutions to most all of their problems before any sort of aggressive force is taken. Everyone's life and contributions are celebrated quietly in ceremonies.

But it is not alive, Jonas realizes. Not truly. It's not a celebration, it's not perfect because it's too perfect. Peace cannot exist without war, disagreements are okay, differences are to be celebrated. Trapping humanity in something considered to be perfect simply ensures humanity survives, not that it lives.

Humanity will disappear one day. We won't always be here. And yeah, quite a few humans are fucking up the world as I type this up. But that doesn't mean life is to be feared and full or rage and despair. Life is to be celebrated. All of it. Every bad thing and every good thing; everything painted in gray.

Anyway...those are my thoughts. 🥲

#poems in mind #not a poem #the giver #The Giver Movie #lois lowry #thoughts #food for thought #humanity #Youtube

[spiderversegf]

I don’t know what kind of books you enjoy, but here are a few easy reads that leave you with a deeper sense of knowing—a deeper understanding—of what it means to truly exist:

The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

The Giver by Lois Lowry (my all-time favorite book)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

These are all quiet in their profundity, particularly the first two, and they deliver poignant commentary on the nature of the human experience at its most fundamental level, irrespective of time or place.

hi! thank you for the recs! i remember reading the giver in middle school and it cracking my brain right in half, but i haven’t reread it in a long time! and im not familiar w the other two but i’ll look them up!!! mwah <3

#✉️ #napalmhearts