Started rereading Rivers of London.

It’s still amazing and can I just point out how much humour the author has with this little gem:

So magic is real I said which makes you a …. What?

A wizard

Like Harry Potter?

Nightingale sighed No he said not like Harry Potter

In what way?

I’m not a fictional character said Nightingale

still completely obsessed, decades after first reading The Dancing Bear by Peter Dickinson (a sort of early 70s ya novel set in Byzantium and a quest along the Danube), with the image of chariot races where the different teams are supported by members of different christian sects - so the crowd is cheering on the greens by yelling in unison SINGLE NATURE SINGLE NATURE because they're monophysites

don't know why that's so compelling for a secular jewish animist and feral buddhist but we've often found ourselves muttering single nature single nature to cheer ourselves on

reasons why the lord of the rings (also there and back again, the silmarillion, and beren and luthien, because those books count too) is the best book series ever (warning: swearing)

-everything about the elves, they're really cool and have a lot of history behind them!

-the fact that Sauron, the deceiver and the dark lord, creator of the one ring, destroyer of civilizations, basically a really powerful guy in general, was scared shitless of Luthien (and anyone related to her) just because she (and her descendants) beat the living crap out of him so much.

-"No living man am I! You look upon a woman! Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. Begone if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him!"

-it's like the only series in existence where the movies and books are both equally good (specifically for the main three, "there and back again"'s movies weren't as good).

-there's tons of lore to discover (like thousands of years of it) so if you like that, go to your local library and get these books ASAP.

-hobbit naming customs, it seems to be a common theme that girls are named stuff like "Mirabella" or "Asphodel," or "Belladonna," meanwhile boys are named shit like "Bingo," "Dudo," and "Mungo." the difference is that the girls have beautiful, amazing names, and boys have names that sound like someone was in a massive hangover and bashed their head against the keyboard, then spaced out the results until they just had random crap there. well, i guess sometimes the boys can have equally ridiculous stuff like "Meriadoc" sometimes, but the girls don't have the weird/stupid names, and i'm not sexist or anything but i think it's hilarious.

-in there and back again, the story literally happens because a wizard and bunch of dwarves barge into the protagonist's house and practically force him into an adventure.

-Sauron has so many names that it's not even funny. I can think of seven (including Sauron, it's that, Mairon, Annatar the Lord of Gifts, Artano, Gorthaur, Aulendil, and Tar-Mairon) off the top of my head, and I know there's more than that. Like, twenty of them. And most of them were used for, well, trying to deceive people. World's first funny bitch.

-for literally most of an entire book in the series we're introduced to a character named Strider, and he's called Strider, and he is Strider, until congratulations?? his name is Aragorn.

-because i said it was. as we all know i control every aspect of literary analysis and my opinion is law. now go read it

In My Library: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

More amazing books featured In My Library:

Babel by RF Kuang

I finally finished Babel after a month! I finally think I'm shaking this reading slump though, and it was a brilliant book. I think it will take a while to fully process all the detail!

It was a truly amazing story and anybody who called it 'preachy' needs to take a look at their own values- it was a realistic portrayal of 1800s England and the racism imbued in it. She managed to invent a magical industry but also accurately predict the pitfalls it would have had.

Amazing work from RF Kuang as always, and I really enjoyed the linguistic focus, and how much she discusses meanings that get lost in translation, and how much viewpoints of nations can be seen through languages. It was intense and detailed, but that was honestly what made it as good as it was.

I also loved her clever technique of adding extra context at the bottom, even story relevant details that it would feel too clunky to add into dialogue. She managed to balance a complex historical and multicultural story while still enduring any reader could understand.

The characters were raw and real, and the effort she put into showing us the variety of viewpoints that still exist within the same side was so eye opening and honest. Her understanding of human motivation and psychology always blows me away.

4.5 stars from me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️, the 0.5 simply because I would have liked more information on the aftermath, but also understand there wasn't many characters to give it through (this will make sense if you've read it).

To me it is less fantasy focused than the Poppy Wars, so if it was only the aspect of Rin and shamans that you enjoyed in that book, you may not love this as much. However if you enjoyed the historical and political elements pick this up quickly!!

Thanks for reading 🥰

The Broken Earth Trilogy - N.K. Jemisin

Fantasy - SciFi - Post Apocalyptic

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This review will cover the three books of the Broken Earth trilogy at once since i've read them a while back and it's more of a complete story in my head than individual events.

I would put this series at the top of my favorite fantasy reads of all time. The magnificent world that N.K. Jemisin created within these books has captivated me, keeping me wondering months after reading them about the ingenious way Miss Jemisin used to blend all the intricate small details into a huge world of fascination.

Cover Design: Lauren Panepinto - Wendy Chan

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, and one thing that I found absolutely brilliant is the inclusion of “post-apocalyptic” people in the story. See the thing with post-apocalyptic books they're usually not so far in the future where you see how drastic changes affect the humans living through them, or at least in the ones I've read so far. So, it was wonderful to get to experience all the small and big differences between what a human is (today) and what a human could become in the hands of forced evolution.

A planet built on instability and destruction. A mother with a past that's about to catch up to her. A world that is yet again ending.

Essun, our mother, comes home to the beat-up corpse of her son with her husband and daughter nowhere to be found. What was a meager yet peaceful life she created for herself by running and hiding from her dark past ends as suddenly as it began. We follow her journey after the remaining members of her family in a world slowly becoming uninhabitable. It was incredibly beautiful and painful to live through Essun in a world where hate for what is “different” is dictated by law. We meet various characters that fall on a very huge scale of morality. I felt my own definition of what is "righteous" shake by the actions of these characters. Every little detail was beautifully weaved within the events of the story that it just blew my mind away when i got to the last book and slowly started seeing all the pieces fall into place. The final scenes will forever stick with me. They were so beautifully written and delivered that i felt the intense fluctuations of emotions taking over me.

This is a Trilogy that left me speechless, and I cannot recommend it enough.       

@nkjemisin   

This review is kept as vague as possible to avoid spoilers 

Reread/finally finished market of misters series and phenomenal! Officially makes my top 5 favorite series of all time! Absolutely loved it!

Ngl you will now see many posts about it on my blog

Just read Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke. THIS BOOK WAS SO F'ING GOOD I SWEAR I'M GONNA MAKE IT MY WHOLE PERSONALITY. It reminds me so much of my dreams from when I was younger and a place I like to escape to when daydreaming. I loved it so much.

It's a definite must read.

I would also like recommendations of similar books plss

Me: maybe I’m not cut out to be a writer…idk what if I’m not good enough

BookTok romance writers: ‘what if you were just a normal school teacher…but the MINOTAUR wanted to get you PREGNANT’

Are you looking for books that will inspire you and your children to be more creative and imaginative? Do you want to learn how to foster creativity in your classroom and at home? If yes, then you should check out these amazing books about creativity for teachers and parents!

Alright, I will start with this one then - everything starts with the glorious revolution and everything starts with the night watch 🌸

i love it when you read multiple works from a writer and you start being able to pick out the things that stick with them. like the themes they keep thinking about, that can’t be satisfied with just one poem or novel or story. or the motifs they like to reuse and recycle throughout their works like an extradiagetic thread. it’s like drawing a map through a writer’s collection of all the things that keep them up at night

Hollywood needs to keep it's incompetent hands off all those books!

RIP Annabeth, I just know Percy sacrificing himself for you, after knowing you for a week, after telling you that you’ve done more for him this week than his father ever has, is permanently altering the brain chemistry of your avoidant attachment self