FANTASY
- carry on by rainbow rowell: it’s harry potter but gay and with extra scones and dumbledore wears tights
- the raven cycle series by maggie steifvater (everyone has heard of this already so): delightfully weird with the strongest set of characters in anything i’ve read and lots of cars and bees
- shades of magic series by ve schwab: whimsical fantasy and cross-dressing pirates and again, brilliant characters and just excitingness
- monsters of verity duology by ve schwab: so so dark with savagely beautiful imagery and creepy nursery rhymes and almost horror writing in book 2
- villains duology by ve schwab: moral ambiguity!!! edginess!!! subversion of the superhero genre!!! characters you both like and hate!!! gritty urban settings!!!
- six of crows duology by leigh bardugo: more moral ambiguity and an absolutely stellar cast of six with an insanely well-crafted heist
- the great library series by rachel caine: a book about books do i need to say more also christopher wolfe is my dad, the worldbuilding is insane and this is SO underrated
- the girl at midnight series by melissa grey: the poetic justice makes me cry every time i think about it and honestly it’s just worth reading to see the character development dorian goes through
- magisterium series by cassandra clare and holly black: harry potter but so much darker even though it’s mg not ya, and it has already made me cry my entire soul out so considering it’s written by 2 of the most popular authors this is criminally underrated honestly
- strange the dreamer by laini taylor: i’m only halfway through this but the worldbuilding is amazing and the writing is absolutely gorgeous and it actually has a plot unlike some books this reminds me of
CONTEMPORARY
- all for the game series by nora sakavic: so dark and so quick-paced and exciting with more amazing characters and more jaw-dropping plot twists and a mc who likes to destroy people on live tv
- one of us is lying by karen m. mcmanus: criminally good ending that might be a direct comparison to a certain other popular tv series around rn with also a good cast of characters
- troublemakers by catherine barter: really poignant narrative on protesting and things and it really helped me come to terms with the attack on my city in may
- release by patrick ness: ok this crosses over into fantasy but it’s like 80% contemporary and it’s just a really good story on coming out into a homophobic environment and coming to terms with being loved and stuff
- a list of cages by robin roe: just straight-up made me cry until i couldnt breathe honestly it has lots of narrative abt child abuse but if that’s not bad for you it’s really really good
HISTORICAL
- the song of achilles by madeline miller: again, i straight up cried by the end of this one. the dramatic irony (cough cough what has hector ever done) is honestly the best dramatic irony in any book ive ever read ever
- the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee: just a really fun whimsical book with pirates and a cute relationship and good side characters and things like that
PLEASE SEND ME MORE I’M RUNNING OUT OF BOOKS TO READ
Tag: books
Alternative Titles for the Iliad
1-Hello Naughty Trojans it’s Murder Time
2-100 Times a Therapist was Needed
3-This War Really Wasn’t Worth it
4-Fight Club but it’s just Achilles
5-Patroclus Didn’t Deserve this
6-Things Historians Pretend isn’t Gay
7-Nothing Means Anything we’re all Going to Die
8-Hector Gets his Ass Handed to Him
9-There is no Heterosexual Explanation for This
10-Fuck it up, Achilles
11-Someone is Responsible for this but not Helen
It’s really important to remember that Diana Wynne Jones was dyslexic and that when she was a little girl and said she wanted to be a writer, people told her that she couldn’t be a writer because of her dyslexia. She became an incredibly popular author.
She actually became the greatest writer in the English language of the 20th century. It’ll take a couple of hundred years for academia to recognize this because she was female, she was funny, and she wrote for children, but – seriously. Try it. Read the best Jones alongside the best Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Nobokov, anybody whose life overlapped hers who is canonized in literature courses, she will win handily on any criterion you care to use; style, theme, structure, characterization, sheer reading pleasure. Hell, the worst Jones will stand up against the best of some of them! (I leave you to name your own names, but I bet someone’s already occurred to you.)
#and so many of her books have a theme of finding yourself#but not in like a neutral way#not just ‘hmm who am I oh ok’#but finding yourself when other people have confused and misled you#into thinking you’re nothing important#so you have to figure out what you are#but also you have to realize that you can be something#and it’s so good#I really did not sufficiently appreciate ‘the lives of christopher chant’ the first time I read it#gosh#using his talents for the ‘wrong’ things#muddling through stuff he doesn’t understand and not realizing how close he is to disaster#hashtag relatable#diana wynne jones (x)
I love her books so much. Every single one I’ve read is so vibrant and colorful and whimsical and memorable. She created such beautiful worlds that children and adults alike could find an escape in. She was brilliant.
She really was. I attended a talk/lecture of hers entirely on accident and it was one of the best days of my life.
When I was in second grade we had to practice writing letters by writing to our favorite authors. Everyone else wrote to RL Stein or the like, while I wrote to DWJ. Everyone else got a form letter. I got a typewriter’ed note from her responding to my letter and adding her own thoughts.
She’s forever my favorite.
#i love diana wynne jones madly#her books have such a particular and special place in my heart#did you like the studio ghibli movie howl’s moving castle?#if you saw it of course you did it’s wonderful#it’s based on diana’s book#and the book is of course so much better#because it’s so much MORE#sophie in particular expands in breadth and depth and capacity endlessly#and howl too#but sophie is just wonderful#the dalemark quartet should honestly stand with narnia and middle earth for beautiful fantastical worlds#and do you know how much i would GIVE to see a fantastically well funded and carefully shepherded movie franchise of the chrestomanci books?#absolutely magnificent#deep secret is so very 90s and so very magical#fire and hemlock and hexwood and the dark lord of derkholm and so MANY more#i love her and so should you
Honestly I have this suspicion that DWJ doesn’t get recognized for how brilliant her writing is cause it’s TOO brilliant. Like, she’s just too good at making it too easy. And her work can be read at a deep or shallow level and all sorts between, so you can read Howl’s as a generic fantasy without realizing it’s an absolute send-up, or a social commentary, or a feminist manifesto, or a fucking razor sharp psychological character study. And you’d be having a marvelous good time reading it.
Good Literature got this Rule that it needs to be unpleasureable to be Good, that it must be Difficult or Uncomfortable or Ugly. I could go off on why but I’ll leave it at gatekeeping. Make Good Literature so nasty and not fun that finishing a book becomes some sort of litmus test of Who’s In. If Good Literature was something just anybody could get through how would we know who was important? /ugh
The thing about DWJ is that you can read her in any way: as genre or even as mainstream literature, as a children’s book or an adult’s book. And she doesn’t rely on tropes to make her point. So many of her characters seem real. Especially the teenagers.
I suspect DWJ would have very much agreed with this accurate assessment of “Good Litearture.”
I agree with all this, but also, I wanted to add that I got a letter back from her too when I wrote a fan letter; she wrote back and apologised for taking so long because she’d been laid up with an illness like in Hexwood, and said that all her books had a way of coming true for her eventually but it was very inconvenient that this one had.
I recently picked up Howl’s Moving Castle on reread and I realized something I never had before, which certainly isn’t in the Ghibli movie, so I hate to spoil people who haven’t read it, but I just have to mention it. As a young American child I simply accepted the bit where they RANDOMLY visit Howl’s home. But as an adult I just started laughing my ass off because I SUDDENLY GOT IT. what a fucking hilarious swerve in a High Fantasyland story.
Basically, Howl is an adventure-comedy set in a sort of medieval-ish High Fantasyland, like a generic Disney story. At one point the characters make a brief visit to Howl’s home. Howl is…. NOT from High Fictional Fantasyland. He is FAR more exotic than that.
He is… in fact… Welsh. And worse: modern. He is, in fact, a grad student. He is a flippant Welsh fuckup with a PhD, who keeps his car at his sister’s house because he’s incapable of adulting properly. Reading between the lines, he may be maintaining an ENTIRE life in the magical medieval land of Ingary simply in order to escape the bother of finding a job in academia. Fuckin relatable, am I right?
I am sorry for the non-book related post but its been 10 minutes and I am still laughing.
This is what Bella’s reaction should have been.
who the FUCK told society that depression and awkwardness is cute and adorable
bad screenwriters
John Green
john green is not the problem
john green’s fans are the problemReblogging SO fast.
With the added caveat that no author is or will ever be perfect.
Stop Blaming John Green for Stuff He’s Not Guilty Of 2kForever
John Green is the biggest example of “tumblr turning on people it used to love to reach for and literally invent call outs for no reason other than its apparently cool to shit on things that are popular.”
I’ll forever be bitter about what this ignorant ass site did to him after his books had so much fucking impact on my life.
OKAY
I have been meaning to do this for MONTHS but hey, there’s no better time than the present so buckle up, here we go!THESE BOOKS ARE A GODSEND.
I am ALWAYS on the lookout for writing aids that ACTUALLY HELP. If you’re like me, and occasionally venture out to buy books on, let’s say, showing vs telling – you will always get the same rehearsed speeches on what that means. -summons pretentious writer’s voice- You’ve got to shoooooow what’s happening in the scene, not teeeeeeell~~ BAH! What you NEVER get, however, is how to do it, or how do it better.
THESE BOOKS ARE THE STUFF OF DREAMS
Each of these is so freaking helpful, I can’t even convey. They all follow the same format as the pictures I’ve shown above, so you get one detailed page of descriptions followed by tons of more in-depth, thought provoking concepts.
I’ll do my best to lay out the five that I have and if you are interested, hop on over to Amazon and buy these suckers up because they are AMAZING; I have NEVER used a writing resource more than I use these.
Negative Trait Thesaurus & Positive Trait Thesaurus
-gives you a definition of said negative trait
-gives you similar flaws also found in the book
-gives you possible causes of WHY the character might have this trait
-gives you a list of other behaviors the chara might have
-gives you examples of the chara’s thought process
-gives associated emotions
-gives positive aspects of the trait, as well as negative
-gives examples of well known chara’s that have this trait
-talks about how the chara might overcome it
-gives traits that, when combined with this one, might cause conflict
How I use this information:
Chara building, or when I get stuck on what I want a character to do. Man, I just can’t decide what they WOULD do. Well, awesome, I have a little guide to help me think through the character’s possible motivations. Also, I get help building a potential backstory because I get a framework of which to think, why is the character this way?Urban Setting Thesaurus & Rural Setting Thesaurus
-gives a whole lot of examples of sights, smells, tastes, and sounds
-gives examples of textures and sensations (ie at an ‘antique shop’ you may encounter chipped paint, distressed wood, etc)
-gives you possible sources of conflict (ie at a ‘hotel’ you might have noisy neighbors)
-gives list of people you might expect to find at said location
-gives related settings
-gives tips on this type of setting
-gives a setting description example
How I use this information: IMAGERY IMAGERY IMAGERYEmotion Thesaurus (aka MY FAVORITE)
-gives a definition of the emotion
-gives physical signs and signals (ie chara may look pale, might fidget, etc)
-gives internal sensations (aka, blood pounding in the ears, dry throat, adrenaline rush)
-gives mental responses (ie fight or flight)
-gives cues of acute or long-term impacts of the emotion
-gives ‘may escalate to _______’ and directs you to other emotions
-gives cues of suppression (ie cues of suppressed rage)
-gives writer tips
How I use this information: I love this book so hardcore, it’s so helpful with internalizing. It’s great because I get to step outside of that box of using the same five responses to a certain emotion and start really thinking about, what can a character do instead to show that they are feeling this, rather than me using adverbs or his adrenaline pumped fifty gazillion times.These books are all co-written by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (bless their souls) and if this sounds of interest LOOK INTO IT!! I get such buyer’s regret after buying writing guides but these are legit the best ones I have found and I reference them so, so, so much.
Hope this helps anyone out there looking for something life-changing!!
I have these books and the emotion thesaurus is my favorite writing aid.
This actually looks WAY more useful than a simple word thesaurus.
…I NEED THIS.
@thebabeontheback we gotta get these.
I agree!!
some modern day basil hallward headcanons
- studies art history
- constantly has dirty hands from paints and pens and charcoal
- owns three polaroid cameras and has a board in his bedroom full of polaroids of his friends
- coffee coffee coffee
- smokes handrolled cigarettes
- very messy dark hair
- in love with classical literature
- has socks with the mona lisa on them
- listens to trad emo bands like bright eyes
Summer Reads
Books I’ve Read Vs. Pending Books
Top:
- Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
- Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
- The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Review can be found here 🙂
Bottom:
- We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
- Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
- The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
- Wide Awake by David Levithan
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
- More Than This by Patrick Ness
- Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat
- The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
- Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff
Hi, I hear you read a lot of urban fantasy novels, any chance you could rec some? ^^ (I apologise if you’ve done this before, but I’m intrigued, urban fantasy is one of my favourite genres)
Absolutely! I’m glad you asked, because this is one of my favorite genres as well. Here are some of my favorite urban fantasy books:
1. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
This book really encompasses what I love about both authors: you have Pratchett’s razor-sharp satirical wit and intelligence, coupled with the lovingly researched devotion to mythology of Gaiman.
It also has some of the best and most memorable characters I’ve ever encountered, and a lot of quiet wisdom wrapped up in a fun and irreverent package. One of my all-time favorite novels.
(If you need any more reason to read it, check out this post.)
2. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.
This is the kind of book you really can’t forget. Simultaneously dark and colorful, with rich visuals, three-dimensional characters, and a truly unique take on gods in modern society, this book is haunting in the best possible way.
There’s also some great rep for characters of color, queer people, and non-Western religious mythology, in both the book and the show. I highly recommend them both.
(Fair warning, however, that there are child murders, undead wives, and a scene in which a prostitute/love goddess eats a man through her cooch, so it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.)
3. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.
Okay, I really love Neil Gaiman. His take on urban fantasy is almost everything I aspire to be with my own writing.
As such, it’s really no surprise that this book is awesome: it’s essentially a wonderfully macabre retelling of the Jungle Book, in which a little boy wanders into a graveyard after the murder of his family and is taken in by the ghosts and creatures living there. A bittersweet and surprisingly profound ride.
4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman.
I’ll try to make this the last Neil Gaiman one, I promise. That said, this book seamlessly encounters the trials, tribulations, and profound beauty of being a child in a world made for adults.
That said, though the central plot is about the unnamed narrator recalling the supernatural events of his childhood while returning home for a funeral, the most gut-wrenching aspects of this book are the painfully real and mundane: from child abuse at the hands of a nanny/Eldritch Horror and alienation from his family as a result of it, to his father nearly drowning him in the bathtub for accusing her, Gaiman manages to make these events rooted in reality enough to feel both painful and realistic.
It can be triggering to some, so be warned.
5. The Percy Jackson series (and its successors), by Rick Riordan.
I first read this series when I was around twelve to fourteen, and I’ve been in love ever since: with faithfulness to Greek mythology that will please both bona fide nerds and laymen alike and a charismatic first person narrative, it’s a ride that even the most reluctant reader will be happy to go on.
I’ve been even more pleased by Riordan’s other series, such as the Kane Chronicles and Trials of Apollo, in which he gives spotlight time to some truly amazing characters of color, queer characters, and more.
I give all his work two thumbs up, and recommend readers of all ages check it out.
6. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency series, by Douglas Adams.
Douglas Adams is probably my favorite science fiction author of all time, so it really doesn’t surprise me that he made it onto this list as well.
My personal favorite of this series is probably The Long Dark Tea-Time of the soul, which features the Norse god Thor blowing up an airport in frustration while trying to book a flight. Miraculously, this is not the most absurd thing to happen over the course of the book.
I highly recommend it.
8. The Colour of Magic (and the rest of the Discworld series), by Terry Pratchett.
Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors of all time, and the Discworld series is a pretty good example as to why. Featuring Death as a recurring character, satirical takes on every tried-and-true trope of the fantasy genre, and one hilarious and unexpected subversion after another, these books are a delight to read.
My favorite installment might be the Hogfather, in which Death takes on the role of Santa Clause with priceless results. It’s amazing, and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves urban fantasy and satire.
That’s all I can think of for now, but encourage my followers to contribute with their own favorite books and series from the urban fantasy genre.
Best of luck, and happy reading! ❤
If you’ve never read the book Good Omens, let me tell you what you’re missing
-An angel who is so goddamn lazy that he makes a deal with the demon he’s supposed to be thwarting so that neither of them have to do any work and he has more time to spend running his bookshop, and who wants to stop the Apocalypse because he loves sushi
-A demon who pretends to be suave and cool but who really just geeks out over his car and loves James Bond and listens to nothing but Queen and thinks gluing coins to the sidewalk is proper demonic activity
-This angel and demon are probably not gay for each other but I mean they’re holding hands on the cover art.
-This angel and demon try to stop the apocalypse but they fuck up so badly that they do literally nothing useful the whole book and somehow it’s still all about them.
-Technically it was the Satanic Nuns who fucked up, but we don’t really talk about that.
-Death (the horseperson) playing a trivia videogame in a diner.
-The four extra horsepersons that were never mentioned in Revelation.
-The antichrist who almost destroys the world because he wants to save the whales
-The only piece of fiction I have ever seen besides Supernatural that somehow manages to include both the Christian apocalypse and space aliens.
-The context of the phrase “gayer than a tree full of monkeys high on nitrous oxide.”
sparksoffandommagic 