#maybe it's all Toews?!
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Hi there! So for your wolfverse, would Strome and DeBrincat stay Hawks? Both get traded to the same team? Or work it long distance? One could argue they did long distance before, but maybe with a settled bond it won't be harmful? I'm heartbroken and may go re-read their story for the (mumbles amount)th time lol
UGH that trade!! I'm not even primarily mad for shipping reasons, though of course those two. In the wolfverse, it naturally didn't happen -- as we saw with Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle in 2016, they might try to trade one bondmate away from the other, but the NHLPA is gonna smack that one down hard under the wolf protection rules that got written into the 2013 CBA. (Such a dick move that one would have been, too. Separating the adopted dads of five wolf children? What were they thinking??)
In Hallsy and Ebs' case, I eventually had them end up in Arizona, where I think Hallsy was playing in real life at the time I wrote the wolfverse advent calendar (honestly I cannot keep track of that man's career, he's been bounced around so much in the past few years). In Brinksy and Stromer's case...hm, I'm torn. On the one hand, Chicago is rapidly becoming a sparsely populated dumpster fire, so I don't really want to keep the boys there. But Kaner and Tazer are there! Wolfpack! So I'm torn.
...Actually I think a fun direction would be if by 2022, Alex and Dylan have been formally taken into Jonny and Patrick's pack. Which is a little nontraditional since Jonny's a human alpha (no way Dylan taking that role from him), but the pack bond seems to have taken. Then the Hawks decide to trade both Alex and Dylan, since obviously just Alex would be against the rules -- and they find themselves slapped with the first formal accusation of violating a PACK bond, which was neither specified nor excluded by the language in the CBA. It's landmark legislation (which of course our boys win).
#so then possibly none of them go anywhere#but also...well we'll see how it goes in real life#maybe they all want out of chicago#tbd#wolfverse#patrick kane#jonathan toews#alex debrincat#dylan strome#taylor hall#jordan eberle#chicago blackhawks#hockey rpf
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i do not have many charitable thoughts about toews or the blackhawks organization BUT. tonight being his last game in chicago is making me emotional :/
i grew up watching the blackhawks and he’s been synonymous with them for as long as i can remember. i literally got into hockey bc of the hawks. i bonded with my dad and my brother bc of them. i have so many fond memories of the late 2000s/early 2010s bc of the hawks. i wish i could separate those feelings from the team but they are so intrinsically connected and i can’t. it’s an end of an era for sure
#riley.txt#iirc with toews’ departure there’s no one left from the 2010 2013 or 2015 cup runs#idk i know that these feelings are more about eras in MY life than anything else#but as much as i hate the blackhawks now i have to admit that they defined an era of my life so.#and also maybe i’m missing my dad more than really caring about hockey#it’s all just a confusing emotional soup
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Pro-tip to surviving an 8-hour shift you don't want to work: spend half of it on voice chat with @toews-a-peek having twin meltdowns about ships sailing
#all of a sudden I only have four hours left?#that's MUCH more manageable than eight#AND I got to visit with a friendo#everything I create tonight is Em's fault#also maybe for the next week or so#but it's OK#because Em is the bestest#toews a peek#my franns#katie speaks#katie's hotel adventures#about katie
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alright. haven't done one of these in a while. here's my top players in each area. (not just this season, but CONSISTENTLY the best in said area)
goal scoring: auston matthews. this one really shouldn't be hard to answer i mean, come on.
points: connor mcdavid, but some others i think are close depending on the season. good point getting is going to come from his play no matter what though.
well-roundedness: nathan mackinnon; he's an excellent passer, scorer, play maker. just all around such a top tier player. both physical and speedy. he is THE blend
defense: cale makar. another obvious one lol. he's just generational. you can't stop him.
goaltending: i'm going to go with andrei vasilevskiy still. just consistent and reliable from what i've seen. he gets the praise for a reason. many goalies are very close though. it's hard to really weigh this one because of how much tending fluctuates year to year
speed: connor mcdavid/nathan mackinnon. both are incredibly quick and actually have a lot closer numbers on average and for their top speed than a lot of people know. their play style is very different but both deserve to be known as the fastest guys out there.
pest behavior: now i'm not talking rat behavior. i'm talking about the ability to propel your team to glory by absolutely irking the opponent. so i'm going to go with matthew tkachuk mostly because he's a better player and pest combo than marchand is. marchand is more rat, matthew has higher playing level.
playoff performance: i'd love to put crosby here, but right now it's wire thin between nathan mackinnon and leon draisaitl. as far as pure scoring and points in the playoffs, it goes to leon. when it comes to the ability to drag a team to a win? i give that part to nate. i always talk about both of them together when mentioning this topic though, so i suppose it's a tie
passing: now THIS one goes purely to leon draisaitl. don't get me wrong there's guys that are close, but holy fuck ain't no one out there passing the way he is. he's excellent at it.
shot (speed/hardness): elias pettersson no comment it's insane argument over
shot (deadliness): david pastrnak, probably :]
defensive forward: patrice bergeron... probably aleksander barkov now, from what i've seen. i'm not very educated on this topic but he seems to trend into this category when talked about often.
defensive defenseman: i'd say devon toews, my favorite underrated king. sorry if this pisses some fans of defenseman off but he doesn't get the credit he deserves. he's very good defensively.
offensive defenseman: either erik karlsson or cale makar. they're always putting up good numbers. it's hard with the regression in ek's season but in his prime? idk. i'd probably still give this one to cale though.
offensive forward: connor mcdavid. shocker lol
skating: there's so many but this also trends in cale's direction for me. i don't think i've genuinely ever seen better edges. maybe datsyuk? either way lmk if there's better skaters out there but.. i'm picking cale again apologies apologies
best player: controversial but this one is a very tight race between mcdavid and mackinnon. again lol. it just depends what you're looking for. they're so much closer than people think but it's hard when their styles are so different. i say mcdavid still for this one, but nate deserves his spot at that "number two" because it's sooooo close. they're both incredible
bonus silly ones now :)
bitchiness: leon draisaitl
hair (not flow, just general amount of hair) : mika zibanejad
shit at media: everyone. congratulations you all get blue ribbons of participation!! you.. you tried!!
goober levels: mitch marner
inseparability: sidney crosby and evgeni malkin and kris letang
weirdness in goalie terms: marc-andre fleury but also all of them
honorable mention picks...
best veteran: we all know. it's sidney fucking crosby and don't even get me STARTED on him anyway
best captain: gabriel landeskog. truthfully but also i'm biased hence why it's here not mixed in with alllllll the others lol
hope you enjoyed my mania
*honorable mention players include mikko rantanen, quinn and jack hughes, adam fox, roman josi, more goalies than i can mention, ovechkin for goal scoring, andrei svechnikov, and so many more because guess what! this league is insane! i could talk about the talent of them all for hours! seasonally or consistently. i love raving about them all. it's very hard to just choose A guy for each category. not enough people see how close many players are to each other in skill levels in my opinion, but then again this is just for fun lol. feel free to debate me i don't mind
#colorado avalanche#nathan mackinnon#cale makar#pittsburgh penguins#sidney crosby#edmonton oilers#connor mcdavid#leon draisaitl#auston matthews#matthew tkachuk#elias pettersson#david pastrnak#andrei vasilevskiy#devon toews#erik karlsson#gabriel landeskog#aleksander barkov#nhl#hockey
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Fic Tag Game
Thanks for tagging me, @starwalkertales!!! I've had my eye on this one for a while, and now I have the push to do it haha
Here we go~
How many works do you have on ao3?
For both my handles: 19, but technically 20 if you count the one I abandoned............oopsie 😅
Specifically for Star Wars: 17
2. What's your ao3 word count?
Amazingly, it's a nice even number right now?! 126,000 😲
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Main fandom: Star Wars (Obikin, QuiObiAni)
Previous fandoms: Hocky RPF, MDZS, Promare
4. What are your top five fics by kudos?
1) WorldBigFlameUp with 620 kudos; this is for the Promare movie, GaloxLio with (dirty) domestic fluff post canon
2) Transference with 471 kudos; my current QuiObiAni golden child; Obi-Wan time travels to save the galaxy and receive aaalllll the love he should have gotten the first time around
3) Wisdom Teeth Woes with 260 kudos; really really cute SFW Obikin, the obligatory post wisdom teeth removal amnesia fic
4) How Anakin Got his Groove Back with 161 kudos; switch Obikin, I fondly refer to this one as "BDSM fic" 😌 she's filfthy, she's fun(ny) - maybe?, she's got BSE (big switch energy) from Obi-Wan LOL
5) I Know You Love Me with 150 kudos; HockeyRPF, my Toews/Kane (bottom Jonny) fic from the Chicago Blackhawks glory days *big sigh* **tears up**
And the honorable mention abandoned fic (Thorki) at 718 kudos LOL (no judgment, okay?? I was a practically a bebe when I wrote it 😅)
5. Do you respond to comments?
................................I need to be better about this. I definitely do for Transference every time I update with a new chapter, but I find it hard to keep up for some of my other fics (EVEN THOUGH I CHERISH EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!)
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
nOnE oF mY fIcS hAvE aNgStY eNdInGs 👀 (like actually)
7. What's the fic your write with the happiest ending?
I swear they're all happy! But I think the sugary-est fic overall has to be How to Fall in Love with a Lawyer, you can't say no to Obikin engagement!
But also, I think The Kenobi-Skywalker Family Goes Viral is also quite adorable (not that I'm biased or anything ha)
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I have been lucky! No hate so far, just some very astute fans of canon that have pointed out inconsistencies haha (which is 100% acceptable)
9. Do you write smut? What kind?
HA... YES! I do lots and lots and lots of smut! But almost all of it is MxM I think!
10. Do you write cross-overs?
Historically, no. Would I be open to it? ...I think I could be convinced...
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I don't think so!
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yesssss!!!! And it is such an honor?!?! My QuiObi fic Seasons of Love was translated by the amazing @cakushi into Russian😭💓💓💓
13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?
NOT YET!!! BUT SOON!!! I'm looking at you, @dark--whisperings 💖
14. What's your all time favourite ship?
QuiObi probably? 🥰 It's definitely my comfort ship.
15. What's your WIP you like to finish, but doubt you ever will?
Oh goodness, welp, I have a WIP called Love and Devotion (MDZS/The Untamed fandom) which is a pseudo-Regency AU for Lan Zhan/Wei Ying that's just sitting there 3/maybe 6 ish chapters in........... I really do want to finish it, but I need to get my head out of Star Wars first....
16. What are your writing strengths?
Visualizing situations to translate them into words
CUTE FLUFF
Writing in a way that's comfortable for me to read out loud
Extensive research (both for smut and non-smut content hehe 😼)
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
GRAMMAR (I switch between present and past depending on the fic and it screws with my brain so much)
Pacing 😠 (How much detail is too much detail?? IDK)
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
Select lines yes, I have for Love and Devotion since the original content is in Chinese and that's my second language, but entire chunks? Definitely not. I usually just do italics to signify another language haha.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
I'm honestly not super sure LMAO back in my fanfiction.net days I wrote for both Death Note and Alex Rider hahaha
20. Favourite fic you've ever written?
Probably Transference haha when you put that much effort into a long-fic, it's hard to not put it on a pedestal.
Thank you so much for tagging me!!! Had lots of fun thinking about these.
Apologies if you've been tagged already, and apologies if I missed you! Anyone can pick this up if you find it interesting!!
@dark--whisperings @thesilverqueenlady @dreaminghour @briliantlymad @anakinsthot @cakushi @to-proudly-go (Omg I’m sorry I left you off!)
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what if the hawks were early adopters of fitness tracking wearables, and they made the players wear them so they could get a sense of their overall health, etc. it feels intrusive at first, but they get used to them quickly, and soon enough they all forget they're wearing them.
pat is in a meeting with one of the trainers to go over his data, and when the guy steps out for a minute, pat can't help but poke around in the folders laid out on the desk. especially the one labeled "toews". he opens it, hoping to find something embarrassing, like that all those times jonny claimed he couldn't meet them out for lunch or drinks or a cubs game because he was working out he was actually just laying on the couch, but as far as pat can tell, jonny is just as boring as he claims, workouts highlighted in yellow when he had a sustained elevated heartrate.
pat notices, though, peeking out the door to make sure the trainer isn't on his way back, that there's another set of workouts that look pretty consistent. they're only 10-15 minutes long, but it's a pretty sudden burst of activity, looking at the heartrate and basal temp, and they're at night... they're at night when they're on road trips, and pat is pretty sure they're all when he's in the shower. which means jonny is on the other side of the thin bathroom door jerking it every. single. time. getting pretty into it, too, pat realizes, and he wonders how he never noticed. maybe because most of the time he's doing the same thing in the shower, and thank god the trackers aren't waterproof, or he'd be in for his own awkward conversation. usually pat's tired enough after, loose and relaxed and warm, that he basically stumbles into his bed and falls asleep without paying jonny much attention. he's sure as hell going to start, though.
#1988#road trip hotel rooms are wear the magic happens#pat absolutely plans to wander out of the bathroom#accidentally of course#and walk in on jonny
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fusion dance: is it not enough for devon toews to be handsome but make it zombie apocalypse? or space cowboys
Omg GREAT fusion thank you so much. Under a cut bc I have mutuals who get squicked by zombie aus
Fic for the curious, bc I can finally, over a calendar year later, read it without screaming.
So my DREAM zombie apocalypse for Is It Not Enough For Devon Toews To Be Handsome goes the way all my favorite horror fic go....everything proceeding normally but there's an increasing sense of something being deeply Wrong and the characters are trying their hardest to Stay Calm And Carry On and by the time you the reader catch on, it's too late. Devon and Cale merrily fucking their way through Continental North America while the stands grow emptier. The city streets they walk through to restaurants are darker. They have to be rushed to and from planes and buses under heavy security. It becomes unclear if games are being televised. It becomes unclear if anyone is in the arenas besides the teams. Members of the Avs start to go missing. Other teams are playing 11-7. Maybe there's no back up goalie for many teams. The Avs play the Bolts in Tampa, but the ice is choppy and the stands are empty and none of their families or loved ones are around when they win. They go home with little fanfare, one of the last flights in the world flown by a pilot with nothing left to lose.
When they make it back to Denver, Devon sticks close to Cale instead of splitting before going to Gabe's for the party. They're sober. The streets of Denver are empty and restless as he and Cale rush through packing what they need in their apartments, both of them working in tandem to grab important papers, family photos, things they'll miss when they're gone. And food. They pack all the food in their apartments. Devon holds Cale's handle over the console as they drive to Gabe's house for a post-win party. It's tense between, then quiet. Gabe's house, which is more like a compound, for purposes, has high garden walls and reinforced gates in front. In the dying light, the team reinforces the compound walls, organizes living spaces, packs away food and water in safe spaces, starts planning how to ration to make sure everyone has enough until the end. They win together; they'll die together. They lost some of the team between the plane and meeting at the house. There's only a handful of them left. There's rustling in the houses around them. As the sun sets, they reinforce the last of the barbed wire and install the final sensors for security systems attached to phones that may not run much longer.
Then they drink. They party as hard and as quietly as they can, laughing and crying and singing and muffling each other's yells against pillows. This is a win party. It's also a wake, a repast. They know they won't survive forever. They may not survive the week. There's tears over the wives and children they lost, and the wives and children they will defend with their lives but ultimately can't save. The parents they'll never see again, the siblings they haven't heard from in months. The former teammates they watched get pulled away screaming, the former teammates who they'll never play against because they haven't responded to check in text messages for months.
There are not many of the team left, but there's enough that Gabe assigned Cale and Devon to share a futon in his daughter's room; she's sleeping with her parents. They ran out of rooms and he knows about Cale and Devon because EJ survived too.
At night, the growling outside is loud, even through double paned windows and blackout curtains and reinforced walls. Cale and Devon are curled towards each other on the futon, their knees knocking against each other. Cale, fearless, unflappable Cale, can't stop shaking. They're more sober than drunk. It's very cold, even in June. It was hot during the day but now Cale can't stop shivering Devon takes Cale's hands, then rubs them, then kisses them, again and again.
"Do you ever think about the future?" asks Cale. "Not, I mean--like, before."
"Just tried to live it one day at a time," says Devon. He kisses the knuckles of Cale's thumbs. "If I got caught up in what-ifs and hypotheticals, I'd get so in my head, man."
"Yeah," says Cale. His heart is beating so hard that he thinks Devon must be able to feel it, if not hear it. "Yeah, that's good."
Devon kisses the tips of Cale's fingers. "Why?"
"I guess I just didn't think you were gonna be the last best thing that ever happened to me," mumbles Cale. He watches as Devon runs his mouth across Cale's wrist. Devon must be able to feel his racing heart. He must. "But maybe I'm just dumb. Maybe you were always gonna be the best thing that ever happened to me."
Devon says, "no, I don't think either of us thought our future culminate in lying in a pink bedroom with Paw Patrol stuffed animals looking at us."
Cale chokes out a wet laugh. "Yeah. Yeah."
Devon says, "you're the best thing that ever happened to me too, Cale. Every day with you was better than the last."
Cale pushes Devon on his back and kisses him until they're both too stupid with it to think about the way the barbed wire is scratching against the walls of the compound, slowly coming loose.
#i have to walk the dog and now i'm too scared 😭😭😭😭#space cowboy au: everything is exactly the same except cale wears a cowboy hat and they play on different planets#like planet-hopping for games? imagine tampa as a whole planet omfg#cage replies#selkiefinalist#unfortunate birdcage fanfictions#chushkin dies within five minutes horribly and painfully
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In addition to training facilities and workshop rooms, Jonathan Toews' recently expanded wellness compound includes a shiny new smoothie bar. The bestseller? Kale-mango-chia. All recipes have been developed by Toews himself and published in an ebook to recreate at home. The bar looks instagram-worthy, though and is well worth a trip. The juice cleanse is worth the squeeze is written in bold letters across the back of it, the pink neon sign lighting up with a nice, juicy lemon next to it. "Oh, that thing," Toews laughs, clearly embarrassed when we ask about what it means. It's an old joke, custom-made and gifted to Toews by a client, a pun on a mantra every one of Toews' clients knows by heart: the juice is worth the squeeze. At its surface, the saying sounds like Toews plucked it from a motivational poster pinned to the locker room of a high school gym. But for Toews, it runs deeper than that.
"I don't believe in the struggle mentality, the whole 'no pain no gain' kinda thinking, or 'nothing good ever comes easy'. That's such poisonous bullshit, excuse my French." -- Did we mention Toews actually speaks perfect French, courtesy of his francophone maman? We told you that man is hot. Anyways -- "If we put out good into the world, it comes back to us, and life doesn't have to be an endless struggle to be worthwhile." But that doesn't mean Toews believes in giving up easy. Instead, for him the saying symbolizes that you should always keep sight of your goals. "If you remember what you're trying to accomplish and why you want that, doing what's necessary to get there immediately becomes easier." So if life hands Toews lemons, squeeze some lemonade? But Toews isn't as goody two shoes as that. "Yeah, maybe. Or break out the Tequila," he adds with a laugh.
And if life hands you a neon sign? Open a juice bar.
#i may or may not be working on something#but since my unreliable brain may never come up with the proper fic for this#have some snippet#the juice cleanse is worth the squeeze#zen sex guru jonny verse#neb writes#jonathan toews#this is my river in egypt i live here now come on in the water's fine#hockey baby
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🐀 👑 🦑
🐀 What is the funniest thing you’ve ever heard a hockey player say?
the shambles in our brain is def an all-timer. the one i think about the most might be “two. head. arms. knees. one under the feet. maybe one for my dog. seven or eight probably. oh yeah well i didn’t even say throw pillows. if there’s no aesthetic that’s a problem. we’re talking 19, 20 pillows.” that quote singlehandedly made me obsessed with alex lyon
👑 If you could add an award to the NHL awards, what would it be and who would be its inaugural recipient?
not an original idea but people have been clamoring for a defensive defenseman award forever and i am decidedly included in people here. i forget what the popular consensus for a name would be but if i had my druthers it would exist and my homer ass would give it to brock faber. i will also accept jaccob slavin, ryan lindgren, adam pelech, devon toews, or jonas brodin (only reason i’m not giving it to brodin outright this season is bc he’s missing significant time)
🦑 Vampires and werewolves. Give me the pros and cons.
anyone who knows me knows i am a vampire fucker so write that down
vampire pros: fangs. sexy. lots of time to amass wisdom and wealth. depending on your canon they might get even more sexy monster traits to fuck with
vampire cons: all that time might make them really emo about it. probably cold. sometimes egomaniacal (sometimes that can also be hot though.)
werewolf pros: transformation sequences are REALLY hot if they’re not gross. feral urges? hot. biting? also hot. and- well. i shan’t say.
werewolf cons: transformation sequences are REALLY gross if they’re not hot. depending on canon might want to eat you in an unsexy way in wolf form
trust you to ask me this one anna
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i haven't been here long and i don't have a horse in this race, but i also don't think the content/flavor of hrpf has changed as much as some people think it has. here's my perspective as someone who did a kind of accidental chronological speed-run of the last 15 years of hockey fandom:
i started reading kane/toews fic before i knew anything about what happened in 2015—before i knew anything about either of them or any other player in real life vs their common fanon depictions—and all the most popular stuff on ao3 (that's still up) is quite fluffy. imagine my surprise to learn about pkane the actual human after reading about this weird little goofball twink for months. i was really under the impression when i first entered this fandom that the majority of fic was very edges-sanded-down escapism, not unlike the billion-and-one ofic m/m hockey novels that romance readers eat up.
if anything, my personal understanding of how hrpf fandom has shifted over the years is that authors have started to grapple more with the reality of hockey culture because of what happened with kane. his ship dominated as this fandom was coalescing, before any major drama, so there was maybe a certain willful ignorance that we could all participate in. but when the rug got pulled, the people who stayed had to think about how to balance reality with fantasy probably harder than they'd ever had before.
now that i've caught up with the times and have branched out into reading more recent fic, i see a pretty solid mixture of hockey-romance-softness and "realism," and it seems to depend on the author and the ship more than saying something about the broader culture, but it's true that a lot of fic from the 1988 era is wiped from the face of the internet and i don't have access to much of what was being hosted on lj vs ao3, so i am missing some context.
but! there's A LOT of hrpf now; the fandom is only getting bigger and producing more content. i think it's just as ikely that what we're seeing is more a result of the circles we float in coupled with the nature of fanfiction as an escape rather than a categorical shift. the stuff that gets popular generally tends to be on the fluffier side. and because there's simply more fic now than ever before, maybe it takes a little more digging than it used to to find the darker/more nuanced/morally gray content.
but it's definitely still there. because i'm reading it!
#literally no disrespect to folks who feel like there's been a shift in quality or away from the kind of content they like#but conversations about how fandom “just aint what it used to be” kind of frustrate me#the nature of fan creation means that there will only ever be MORE for us to consume#youre not losing out when there's in influx of a certain trope or narrative style#the thing we love is getting more attention! it's growing!#as someone who just came from a dying fandom i think this kind of discussion doesnt ultimately help anyone.#you cant force people to write what you want to read#but you can make newer fans feel bad for not doing fandom “the right way”#and that sucks
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One Line, Any Fic
Pick any 10 of your fics, scroll somewhere to the midpoint, pick a line, and share it! Then tag 10 people.
I was tagged by @katries! And in the true spirit of overengineering things, I used a random number generator so I didn't have to pick the fics myself. Here goes, in no particular order!
The Great Christmas Glitter War of 2020
"You know it's your hoodie, right?" He settles for shouting down the hall as he carefully shakes his feet loose enough that he can step back over to the closet. He pulls another of Eddie's hoodies from its hanger and tosses it over to the bed, holding his breath that the throw doesn't fall short and land in the glitter pile. "Eddie! Eddie, this is yours, you know that right?"
One Good Time At A Time
"I don't think I could tell you what a properly formed prefrontal cortex looks like, but I'm sure you've got one."
Skinned Knees and Booboo Kisses
"Daddy's busy," Lucy tries again. "He's helping make the bad guys go away."
"No!"
He's a Star AND an Angel
He's a handsome boy, Tim has to admit. But he is not cute.
I've Got Some Oceanfront Property in Arizona
And if Buck believes that Eddie would do that, then maybe he should look into buying a bridge on Jupiter.
5,578 Miles (to get back to you)
Maybe he's less charming than he'd thought, and the discount was just because of the mysterious stains on the carpeting.
I Wanna Introduce You to my Kinfolk
"We're off to a great start. My dad thinks this is a sex trip, and I still have to worry about making a good impression on your parents.
Scrambled Eggs at 1 a.m.
All Tim wants is for Lucy to feel like she can make herself at home with him, take up space in his bed, fix something to eat when she's hungry.
The Weight of the World Gets Pretty Heavy
"Hey, ain't never had a player who wasn't always welcome back on my teams. Well, except Alex Tiffens, back at Wichita State, but as long as you refrain from leaving a whoopee cushion full of dog doo-doo underneath my desk chair, you'll be fine, Jamie.
Ticket to LA
Maybe in another lifetime it could have been Buck. If they'd have met sooner. Or later. Or not riding out a thunderstorm at JFK.
I'll tag @toews-a-peek, @wanna-be-bold, @ellitheria, @tawaifeddiediaz, and anyone else who wants to play along!
#one line any fic#thanks for the tag!#kaaaaaaat#kitkat0723#katie writes#buddie#911#911 fox#tarlos#911ls#911 lonestar#chenford#the rookie#ted lasso#jamie tartt
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Books in 2022
Uncharacteristically for a midterm year, 2022 sucked. 2006, 2010, and 2014 hosted some of my happiest experiences, and even their worst parts were emotionally rich or educational. 2022 was mostly stagnant, interrupted only by misfortune: illnesses and deaths, harassment, personal and professional setbacks that started on January 2nd and continued through December 29th.
There were nice moments too – everyone should go to at least one Weird Al concert – but they’re obscured in my memory by the relentless slaps to the face. In that same way, when I look over the list of books I read in 2022, I recognize a lot of good titles, yet the overall vibe is one of disappointment. But there’s an unresolved question of cause and effect at hand: did a bad reading list contribute to the mediocrity of the year, or did my existing bad mood prevent me from enjoying these books? Is it the tale or the teller?
Fifth Business, Robertson Davies (Jan. 2-5)
The first volume of the “Deptford Trilogy.” Dunstan Ramsay, a retiring history professor, reviews his own life. The title comes from the narrator’s sense of himself as a supporting actor (neither “Hero, nor Heroine, Confidant nor Villain”) in the more riveting lives of others. Maybe you can already understand my interest in this character. The novel is sophisticated and perceptive about human behavior, and at the end, it reveals itself to have been beautifully plotted too. A thoughtless act by a nasty kid in Ramsay’s neighborhood turns out to have reverberated through generations, and it leads to a dramatic and frightening ending. Frightening because the events are so convincingly presented that you can well imagine an unwelcome conclusion like that rearing up in your own life.
Abandoned Cars, Tim Lane (Jan. 6-10)
Pulpy short stories drawn in a highly detailed, old-fashioned style. The drawings carry it. The writing isn’t bad, but it’s a lot of those, “lonely men, open roads, cigarettes, greasy spoons, crooners on the jukebox” kind of stories. A midcentury nostalgia that was picked clean a long time ago.
A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews (Jan. 9-16)
A teenaged Mennonite in Manitoba dreams of a more exciting life in New York City. I can sympathize with the heroine’s dreams, and I did like learning about Mennonite life, a world I know nothing about and the author knows intimately. But the details were ultimately so foreign to me that there was a limit to how much I could get into the novel. It’s hard to know how perceptive an observation is when you have no idea what’s being perceived. Still, people whose tastes I trust (my dad; the cartoonist Tim Kreider) admire Toews, so let’s call this my failure.
Stone Fruit, Lee Lai (Jan. 11-13)
At the start of the book, Ray and Bron are happy aunts to a six-year-old niece. But soon, their relationship ends, and they’re sunk into an unhappiness that’s not alleviated by the families they turn to. It’s all pretty bleak, but not unfairly so. The emotions the characters endure are realistic and earned, so while you might feel depressed at the end, you won’t feel manipulated. Plus, there are some great illustrations, particularly of the friendly monsters that the niece imagines while playing with her aunts.
The Manticore, Robertson Davies (Jan. 17-25)
The second part of the “Deptford Trilogy,” following David Staunton, the son of the rotten kid from the first book, as he undergoes Jungian analysis, a subject I know little about. But the little bit that I understand (or misunderstand), I like. It’s much more internal than Fifth Business, the scope is narrower, and the stakes are lower, but it’s just as intelligent and well-written.
A Map of Betrayal, Ha Jin (Jan. 26 - Feb. 1)
The main story is of Gary Shang, a double agent working for the CIA and passing information back to China while dealing with his American family and his conflicting loyalties. The framing story is of Gary’s daughter learning of her father’s past and reckoning with it. As usual, Jin’s insight into his characters’ emotional lives is terrific and effortlessly rendered. The details of this particular plot, however, are not quite so successful. Some of the set-up is unconvincing, and there are plot turns that feel sketchy. Not so much that you’ll have to put the book down, but don’t go in expecting another Waiting.
Tintin: The Complete Companion, Michael Farr (Feb. 2-21)
The second book I read to supplement 2021’s reread of the entire Tintin series. This one deals with the factual background for the stories and the artistic process by which Hergé wrote and drew each volume – as opposed to The Metamorphoses of Tintin, which I read two months earlier, and which took a more academic view. This book is beautiful to look at, featuring details of the series’ artwork and clippings from Hergé’s archives, but neither this nor Metamorphoses really deepens the pleasure of reading the actual books. Maybe what I’m looking for is a third path: a book that doesn’t take a technical or academic approach to the series, but rather an aesthetic and emotional approach. Maybe I should stop whining and write that book myself.
World of Wonders, Robertson Davies (Feb. 3-8)
The last book in the “Deptford Trilogy.” More like Fifth Business than The Manticore, this one again covers most of a lifetime – this time, of the magician Magnus Eisengrim, who is linked, from birth, to Dunstan Ramsey and David Staunton. This one ties up some of the remaining threads from the other two books, if that sort of thing is important to you, and it’s all about stage magic, something I always like reading about (in fact, this book lead me to seek out the one three spots down this list). On balance, it’s not as good as The Manticore, which itself is not as good as Fifth Business, but those are only relative markings. There’s no reason not to read all three.
On Animals, Susan Orlean (Feb. 9-15)
A collection of essays about domestic animals and wild animals. Though there are interesting stories of whales, tigers, and other majestic creatures, the essay that affected me the most was about homing pigeons, perhaps because their feats were the most beautiful to me. Because this is a collection of pieces written separately and later cobbled together, it doesn’t have the thematic strength that her single-subject books do, but it’s worth reading nonetheless.
Pocket Kings, Ted Heller (Feb. 16-23)
A funny book about a stalled-out novelist who starts playing poker and becomes a relative success while the rest of his life falls apart. The plot doesn’t matter too much. You’re in it for the wittiness and intelligence of each individual paragraph. Towards the end, there’s a great section where we’re urged to reconsider the wisdom of a dozen pithy quotes by famous writers. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “There are no second acts in American lives” is challenged by the records of “Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, John Travolta, Bill Clinton or…F. Scott Fitzgerald.” There’s also a good joke when the narrator accuses the novelist Zoë Heller of leveraging her last name to mislead readers into thinking she’s related to Joseph Heller – a joke that became even better when I learned that Ted Heller is actually Joseph Heller’s son.
Penn & Teller’s Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends (Feb. 24-26)
When I was in high school, I read their other two books: How to Play with Your Food and How to Play in Traffic, both of which were full of worthy anecdotes and some magic tricks I’ve deployed throughout the years to mild approval. This one was less good. There are fewer interesting passages, and much of the book serves as a trick in and of itself. For example, half of the pages are illegible, printed in what the book itself calls, “itty bitty tiny irritating psycho-print,” so that it can be used as a prop in one of the tricks the legible pages teach you. Clever, but how can you not feel conned yourself when half of the pages are unreadable?
David Lodge and the Tradition of the Modern Novel, J. Russell Perkin (Mar. 3-7)
Another academic analysis of a favorite author, another unsatisfying read. Why do I keep picking these up? There’s nothing wrong with what Perkin says about David Lodge, and as members of the same relatively small fandom, I feel a kinship with him. But there’s no response possible to somebody else’s analysis besides (a) agreeing or (b) presenting a competing analysis. I hope he got an A for this thesis, but as a book, it does nothing for me.
Dracula, Bram Stoker (Mar. 7-17)
Foolishly, I wrote my own vampire stories before ever reading Dracula. I suppose I thought that, since the story has been absorbed into our collective consciousness, there was no need to read it. Maybe you feel that way. That is not so. It’s a very good book, even if it doesn’t surprise us the way it would have its first readers. It’s perfectly paced and vividly rendered, and, although the subject is masked by the nineteenth-century propriety of its language, I think you’ll be excited by how sexually charged the novel is. An early scene of the brides of Dracula descending on a victim will have you sweating.
All The Answers, Michael Kupperman (Mar. 11-14)
Michael Kupperman’s father was a boy genius who appeared on a panel show in the 1940s, answering tricky math questions. Being a child star was not a positive experience for him and he grew into a withdrawn adult, who never shared memories of his childhood with his son. Kupperman’s book is both a biography of his father and a memoir of his attempts to connect with a distant parent. In that sense, and because it’s a comic, it invites some comparisons to Maus, but that’s a pretty tenuous comparison. I only make it because the book doesn’t offer much to hold on to. Neither half of it is bad, but it never achieves escape velocity, perhaps because the father at the center of it all remains unknown to us and to Kupperman.
The Art of Fiction, David Lodge (Mar. 19-24)
A collection of newspaper columns from the novelist. In 50 entries, he discusses one element of the novel (opening lines, point of view, symbolism, the title, unreliable narrators, etc.), and illustrates his points with excerpts from modern and classical novels. It’s all very smart and very digestible, and if you’re trying to write a novel, you’d surely find some useful tricks to borrow. My favorite piece is the one on naming characters, in which Lodge cannily compares the deliberately suggestive names "Robyn Penrose" and "Victor Wilcox" in his own novel Nice Work to the name "Quinn" in Paul Auster's City of Glass. Quinn is a name that “flies off in so many little directions at once,” and if a name can mean anything, it ultimately means nothing at all – which, as Lodge rightly points out, is the point of that existential book.
Fictional Father, Joe Ollman (Mar. 19-23)
The story of a newspaper cartoonist who became rich and famous for his sappy father-and-son comic strip while ignoring and abusing his own son. This is a made-up story, but apparently – as Ollman himself only discovered after he’d written it – it’s very congruent to the real life story of Hank Ketcham, creator of Dennis the Menace. Though Ollman sees and draws out the real emotions of in this dynamic, his book is played mostly for laughs and is mostly successful. Lots of funny dialogue and a drawing style that makes everyone look laughable.
The Lost Weekend, Charles Jackson (Mar. 26-30)
The classic novel about a dissolute alcohol’s weeklong binge. The best scene is when he makes a half-joking/half-serious attempt to steal a stranger’s purse to fund his addiction. In addition to how well it works as a sad character study, it’s also one of those books that transports you to a bygone urban landscape – if you like that sort of thing, which I do.
Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri (Mar. 31 - Apr. 4)
I find Lahiri’s work both irresistible and highly resistible. I like it because it’s so good, so intelligent, so precise, and so effective. I reject it because that same expertise leaves me feeling manipulated. It provokes an emotional response, yes, but because what’s provoked is always the only emotional response made available by the text, you have the sense that you’ve been moved from A to B to C without your input. A friend of mine says writing like this is akin to a sniper’s bullet: the marksmanship is incredible, but how good are you going to feel about the results? Oh, but this book in particular? It’s fine. A woman without a name wanders through a European city without a name, thinking. A little more diffuse and experimental than her other books, but in the end it feels…well, you know.
Amateurs, Dylan Hicks (Apr. 7-11)
I hardly remember this one. It was about a group of twentysomethings, tied together by threads of romance, thwarted romance, friendship, and competitiveness. Was there a wedding? A road trip to get to that wedding? I’m not sure. My recollection is that the book was good, not bad, but I have no evidence to back that up.
Don’t Come in Here, Patrick Kyle (Apr. 10)
A little comic book. Not much of a narrative. Just a showcase of trippy artwork, which wasn’t bad. What I remember most was returning this book to the library and it not being checked back in, obligating me to call up the circulation desk before I could be slammed with a humiliating late fee.
The Long Prospect, Elizabeth Harrower (Apr. 12-16)
An Australian novel about a young girl who lives a stifling life in a boarding house owned by her unpleasant grandmother. One boarder, a scientist, takes the girl under his wing. That’s the set-up, but I can’t animate any of the characters. Like Amateurs, the action of the book has been completely forgotten. Unlike Amateurs, the feeling that remains is not positive.
To Know You’re Alive, Dakota McFadzean (Apr. 14-15)
A collection of off-kilter, slightly spooky stories. There’s a cute one about how our culture might react if a boring alien landed on Earth, a creepy one about the discovery of a lost piece of children’s media, an eggheaded appraisal of Super Mario Bros. 2, and a silent nightmare with an inescapable cereal mascot. They’re all fun.
Let Us Be Perfectly Clear, Paul Hornschemeier (Apr. 16-17)
Another collection of short comics. The design of the book is clever. There are two halves: Let Us Be, printed from the front of the book to the middle; and Perfectly Clear, printed from the back of the book to the middle. But the stories themselves are less memorable than the package.
Hanging On, Edmund G. Love (Apr. 17-24)
Pulled off a library shelf at random, I think I may be the only person to have ever checked it out. A memoir of a being a teenager and sometimes college student in Michigan during the Great Depression. Though there are few highs and many lows when you grow up in that era, the book is a breezy, amusing read, so long as you don’t get hung up with resentment after learning that his tuition to attend the University of Michigan was only about $100 per year.
Carnet de Voyage, Craig Thompson (Apr. 21-23)
A little illustrated travel diary. Thompson wrote it while he was traveling around, promoting Blankets. It’s trifling, but fine. I had a stomach flu at the start of the year, so a sequence of Thompson suffering from food poisoning made me feel seen.
King of King Court, Travis Dandro (Apr. 24-28)
A very good memoir of childhood. It’s drawn in a chunky, juvenile style, but the material is pretty harrowing. Dandro’s dad was a heroin addict, his stepfather was an alcoholic, and his mom was understandably harried and overwhelmed. Dandro’s perspective is mature and empathetic, but he’s still able to recall and illustrate the feelings of fear and anger and shame that can arise in kids when they have unwelcome encounters with the adult world. It sounds like a painful read, but it’s not at all.
Remembering the Bone House, Nancy Mairs (Apr. 27 – May 5)
A memoir about the physical spaces Mairs has occupied: both houses and her own body. Her approach is scattershot, but I liked that. There’s a tendency towards loftiness and know-it-all-ism in memoirists (fair enough, given that the alternative is to concede that the stories from your life are meaningless, in which case, how self-indulgent is it to publish them?), but Mairs avoids it. She presents her book with the attitude that writing is not the summation of life, but just another action taken by the living. Illustrating that point is a moment where she writes of publishing a personal essay about her affair and discovering that, contrary to what she thought, her husband didn’t know about it – until he read the printed story.
Nutshell, Ian McEwan (May 7-11)
Told from the perspective of a fetus, as he listens in on the sinister machinations and plotting of his mother and her lover. It’s clever and the high concept doesn’t wear thin. Embarrassingly, I didn’t realize until I had finished the book that it was retelling the story of Hamlet, even though the title comes from one of the only lines of that play I can confidently quote.
Level Up, Gene Luen Yang & Thien Pham (May 11-12)
The main character’s strict father won’t buy him a Nintendo Entertainment System. When the father dies, the hero buys an NES, and develops a passion for video games that becomes a crutch whenever he falters in life. Eventually, he’s set upon by some cherubs or angels who act as his guilty conscience, obliging him to follow his late father’s wishes for him. The main idea here – the hero’s challenge to find his individual happiness without disappointing or disrespecting his family – is handled well, but I can’t help but wish that video games hadn’t been the subject the story was spun around. I like video games, and respect their intelligence and artistic merit…but every time people try to transplant them into another medium, the operation is a failure, and the subject dies on the table.
The Unconsoled, Kazuo Ishiguro (May 12-21)
A book that tries your patience, if it’s possible to say that without being totally negative. A pianist arrives in a new city in advance of a concert and is soon dragged all over the city for endless, perplexing meetings and chores. The story is presented like a dream, where characters pop up randomly, and locations can be endlessly distant in one moment and right around the corner in the next. The thing is, dreams are always more interesting to the dreamer than to any audience, so the book can be frustrating at times, even if you accept its structure. Still, it’s impressive that he pulled off such a stunt for 500 pages, and the quality of Ishiguro’s prose is bright and beautiful as always.
Perchance to Dream, Charles Beaumont (May 23-29)
Twilight Zone-esque tales from a writer for The Twilight Zone. Actually, many of the stories in this book became scripts for that show. But they work in either medium. The best is “The Howling Man,” about a traveler in Europe who comes across a group of monks who are keeping a strange prisoner. Inventive and tidy and not bogged down by any need for meaning, these are the sort of stories I’ve been trying to write recently.
Passport, Sophia Glock (May 28-30)
As a teenager, Glock discovered that her secretive parents were actually spies working for the CIA. I think that’s the set-up for Spy Kids, but this book goes in a less bombastic direction. It’s a fairly conventional coming-of-age story, as Sophia makes friends and enemies, goes out to parties, and learns to accept herself. It’s okay, and there’s something amusingly anticlimactic about the irrelevance of her parents’ profession to Glock’s own story, but you won’t be mesmerized by this book.
The Resisters, Gish Jen (May 30 - June 2)
A baseball prodigy tries to find happiness in a dystopian future. I sped through this book, surprised at how tolerable it was, but by the end, my general disinterest in dystopian stories won out. The nod-your-head-sadly parallels to our current culture are more wearying than enlightening. The baseball scenes are okay, though. That sport translates well to the page.
Come Along With Me, Shirley Jackson (June 4-9)
The title comes from an unfinished novella included in this collection, but it and every other story are overshadowed by “The Lottery,” which is as good as its reputation holds. The next best inclusion is Jackson’s essay about the reception “The Lottery” got. In addition to the reams of letters from people incapable of understanding that her story was fictional and convinced that there really did exist a small town that committed ritual stoning, she received a fawning letter, to which she politely responded, “I admire your work, too,” only to discover that she had responded to an accused axe murderer. On the far opposite end, this collection also has “Pajama Party,” a cute domestic comedy about a child’s first sleepover. I liked that one too.
Twists of Fate, Paco Roca (June 9-11)
I’ll compare this one to Maus too, and I’ll be on firmer ground: a comic book about a young man painstakingly drawing out the war stories of an elderly man. The man fought against the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, fled to Algeria, joined the Allied forces, and was party of the forces that liberated Paris from the Nazis. But he was never able to return to Spain to liberate it from Franco, a regret that gnaws at him, even at age 94. That’s a good story, and it digs into some underexposed history, but I was never fully convinced of the need for the framing device.
Memoir of a Gambler, Jack Richardson (June 12-19)
A little bit like a non-fiction version of Pocket Kings. After his divorce, Richardson crosses the country, and eventually the globe, playing poker in high and low places. There’s not a lot of happiness in this world, and Richardson does nothing to change that, but his cold and precise rendering of his adventures (and really, they are adventures: he’s not just sitting at the tables for the whole book) are entrancing. His description of the geography of Las Vegas – which, by chance, I was reading as I flew into Las Vegas – should on its own be enough to shut down the city.
Hidden Valley Road, Robert Kolker (June 21-25)
The true story of a large family in Colorado Springs, some of whom were acquainted with my uncles. There are 12 children, and half of them are ultimately diagnosed with schizophrenia, leading to much grief but ultimately making the family a fruitful source of data for medical researchers. It’s a sad book, and like all good documentaries, it makes you feel guilty for being witness to what you’re seeing.
Lovesickness, Junji Ito (June 24-26)
A collection of unsettling, grotesque comics. Exactly what I was expecting and hoping for when I picked it up, yet I was unmoved by the collection. The territory is just the same as in Uzumaki, which I’d read the year before, but as a set of independent (rather than linked) stories, the material doesn’t have a chance to develop an insidious feeling or any thematic resonance. It’s more a series of satisfactory but forgettable shocks.
Thin Places, Jordan Kisner (June 27 – July 3)
These are the sort of essays all NYU freshman are taught to write: pick three or four subjects – usually a selection from personal experience, history, a piece of art, and an event, place, or occurrence in our culture – and juxtapose them in every pairing until you reach your page count. It’s a very mechanical process, and my experience being taught it left me prone to resist this form. And yet I liked this collection well enough. Kisner is honest, most of her insights are well-articulated, and though there’s no humor in these essays (the form won’t allow it), she doesn’t fill that vacuum with pretension, as my classmates and I always did.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (July 6-9)
There’s a party game called Humiliation, where you reveal that you've never actually encountered some huge culture monument, and you get points for each person at the party who has. For a long time (still, in fact), I could say I’ve never seen Titanic and scoop up a bunch of points. That was my go-to because I was too embarrassed to confess to an even bigger miss: I had never read The Catcher in the Rye. It’s a wonderful book, though. Very funny and very moving. What surprised me was how much I admired Holden Caulfield. I don’t just mean that I understood and accepted his adolescent angst. I actually think he’s a noble person. His anger may sometimes be misplaced and his sense of righteousness can be overly dogmatic, but those are habits that usually pass with age, and what will be left is the sensitivity, intelligence, and moral strength that’s plainly evident beneath his clumsy exterior.
American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar, Harvey Pekar, et al. (July 7-13)
Autobiographical comics by another admirable grouch. I had never read any American Splendor stories before, maybe because their multiple art styles (Pekar wrote the comics but had a variety of other artists draw them) seemed wearying to me. And truthfully, that quality still does nothing for me. But the writing is great. The stories vary in subject and length and presentation, but every one of them is closely observed and intelligent about the way people talk and act and think. The ordinariness of life (and of Cleveland) is rendered with extreme beauty. And Pekar himself is a great hero. Another noble crank who’s critical and passionate and full of fury, yet never unkind and never less than generous.
I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying, Bassey Ikpi (July 10-13)
A pain-filled memoir, this one about bipolar disorder, disassociation, and the Challenger explosion. It’s mostly engaging, though there are parts in the back half where useful details seem to be missing and it becomes hard to follow. Given the subject matter, this may not be unintentional.
Crash Site, Nathan Cowdry (July 14-15)
Edgelord stuff run through several layers of irony. Lots of violence and provocative dialogue stacked up in such a way that it’s impossible to tell whom the author is trying to provoke: those who would take offensive or those who would deny the validity of being offended. I sort of see the point, and I didn’t hate the book. But at a certain point, you wish Cowdry would stop fooling around and just write a real story.
Amnesty, Aravind Adiga (July 16-19)
A young migrant worker in Sydney comes across a murder. If he reports it, he risks deportation, a fact that the murderer is all too happy to rub his nose in. It’s a good blend of a thriller and a social commentary. I also liked that fact that it was taking Australia and its cultural values to task. Not that I personally have anything against Australia, but it’s a country that you rarely see condemned, so I appreciated getting to reading a rare (and surely well-deserved) scolding.
Onion Skin, Edgar Camacho (July 17-18)
The story of a couple that runs a food truck and finds themselves in a turf war. It holds your attention while you’re reading it, but it’s a mess, jumping around in time and in tone. Plus, the relationship at its center is very tired: a mopey guy finds his life reinvigorated by a free-spirited girl. The food looked good, though.
Popcorn, Ben Elton (July 21-24)
A Hollywood satire written by a Brit, so it has that some of the stiffness and artificiality that can come in when writers try to cross the pond. But on the whole, it’s funny and astute about the industry. The ending overemphasizes its lessons, but I liked that Elton didn’t shy away from the mayhem he’d been teasing.
Brownsville, Neil Kleid & Jake Allen (July 22-23)
The familiar story of growing up in New York, being attracted to the mafia, and eventually joining it. The twist this time is that it’s the Jewish mafia. Interesting? Not really. That detail hardly changes anything, so the arc and most of the individual scenes in this book are rote in conception and in execution. Your favorite mafia story, whatever it is, will give you as much as this book and more.
My Man Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (July 29 - Aug. 1)
An early and unpolished collections of short stories. Given that Wodehouse later rewrote most of these pieces, the decent thing to do might have been to let this collection go out of print. Fewer laughs than Wodehouse usually provides, though there are still a couple of big ones, such as one character’s passing idea to make money by selling anarchists and other dispossessed people the opportunity to beat up his rich uncle.
Good Eggs, Rebecca Hardiman (Aug. 6-10)
A warm-hearted comedy about an Irish family. There’s the grandma who keeps making trouble, the rebellious teen with a soft, sentimental center, and the harried father caught in between the generations, trying to keep everything running smoothly. Eventually, they’re all put on the same side of the field when they have to take on an American who’s scammed them. It’s nothing remarkable, and I didn’t laugh too much – perhaps not at all – but sometimes it’s enough if a book features one element close to your heart. In my case, it was the suburban Dublin setting.
Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, MariNaomi (Aug. 9-11)
A catalog of intimate relationships ranging from crushes to long-term relationships. To some degree, it’s all contextualized by its setting (the Bay Area in the 1980s and 90s), and by how the author views her relationships in comparison to that of her parents. But mostly, it’s just a list, and one that becomes quickly repetitive.
The Library Book, Susan Orlean (Aug. 11-14)
Possibly a perfect non-fiction book. In 1986, a fire broke out at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, wiping out 20% of its collection. Orlean covers that disaster and it subsequent investigation, but she also makes room for the history of the LAPL, discourse on the function of libraries in America, personal reflections, academic theorizing, and science experiments (the chapter about her own attempt to burn a book is one of the best parts). The arson at the heart of this story is compelling enough to make this book good in anyone’s hands, but in Orlean's, it’s great.
I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me, Juan Pablo Villalobos (Aug. 16-21)
Another fun mash-up. This time the blend is crime thriller, campus novel, and metafiction. Juan Pablo is a Mexican student who is abducted before leaving to study abroad in Spain, and ordered to get close to a corrupt politician by falling in love with his daughter. The plot is knowingly ridiculous and, though you eventually give up on trying to follow it, it’s amusing all the way through. There’s also a fun essay at the end, in which the translator explains his difficulty in capturing the voices of the different narrators, conceding with admirable frankness that he’s not sure he succeeded.
The Bridge, Peter J. Tomasi and Sara DuVall (Aug. 17-20)
The true story of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. If you don’t know it already, the fun detail is that the chief engineer became overworked in the middle of construction, and spent the rest of it monitoring the bridge’s construction from his bed while his wife took over as de facto leader at the job site. The standard details of how to build an enormous bridge are also fun to learn about, and the authors do a good job making you share in the stress of the workers deep below the water.
Woke Up This Morning, Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa, and Philip Lerman (Aug. 23-28)
An oral history of The Sopranos cobbled together from the podcast Imperioli and Schirripa started a few years ago. That show is endlessly discussable, and the book has a few funny stories and some thoughtful analysis, and it’s certainly better to read this book than to listen to the podcast (did I tell you I’ve declared a war on podcasts?), but I don't know…I found myself growing less and less interested the more I read. Once the initial fun of being a fly on the wall passed, I recalled that The Sopranos is strong enough to speak for itself.
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, Brian Kellow (Aug. 30 - Sep. 4)
A thorough biography that features and contextualizes lots of excellent film reviews by Kael. It also reveals some of her astonishing lapses of ethics. In 1971, she published, “Raising Kane,” an essay about the authorship of Citizen Kane’s screenplay. It’s a terrific piece of writing, but it’s extremely shoddy journalism that has since been disproven. Even worse, much of her research was stolen from a UCLA professor, whom she never credited. It’s a shocking revelation and Kellow presents it without excuses. That chapter alone is worth the price of admission.
Love That Bunch, Aline Kominsky-Crumb (Sep. 2-5)
Autobiographical comics from one half of an underground comix power couple. A relationship that’s mostly been presented through her husband Robert Crumb’s eyes is shown here from Kominsky-Crumb’s perspective instead. But the thing is, they’re a very well-matched couple, so their perspectives aren’t all that different. And honestly, neither of their styles are terribly interesting to me, accomplished though they are. Still, you can admire Kominsky-Crumb’s pioneering efforts, and she and her husband and their unconventional family are pretty cute, no matter how repellant this book tries to make them seem.
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (Sep. 6-10)
Another classic that I’m only just now getting around to. A hair less interesting than Dracula – the old-fashioned formality of the writing makes it a less ripping read – but still great. Dr. Frankenstein and his monster are both fascinating and complex, and the whole story is genuinely haunting and ambitious in scope. The framing device of the Arctic voyagers who witness the end of Frankenstein’s story seems impossibly contemporary. Considering how young Shelley was when she wrote something so good, hers may be the greatest accomplishment in the history of literature.
This is How I Disappear, Mirion Malle (Sep. 10-12)
Another mental health story. Because this one is done as a comic, not as prose, it can place us immediately into the shoes of its protagonist and let us feel her pain, which is a point in its favor. Working against it is the abundance of scenes, dialogue, and plot points driven by text messages and social media messaging. As always happens when those elements are spotlighted in a story, they dial the energy of the book down to nearly zero. (I'm not letting myself off the hook: I've tanked my own pieces that way.) That technology is an important part of our lives and our culture, and someday somebody will find a way to mill it into art, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth (Sep. 11-17)
It had been nearly 15 years since I read anything by Roth. This was a good one to restart with. An alternate history of Roth’s childhood if the United States had elected Charles Lindbergh over FDR in 1940. The family drama and the political drama are equally engaging, and Roth even leans into the ridiculous fun of speculative fiction with a big, ludicrous twist in the last fifth of the book that guides everything to a satisfying resolution.
Loved and Lost, Jeffrey Brown (Sep. 14-18)
Three graphic novels covering three of Brown’s formative romances. Sincere, but sort of wimpy. I don’t want to cross a line and start critiquing anybody’s personal emotional repertoire – I’m just talking about what’s recorded on the page. The happy moments we see of his relationships are moments of quiet companionship. There’s almost nothing about adventures or inside jokes or mutual discoveries – the exuberant parts of a relationship. Quiet companionship is an important part of love too, and if that’s the pitch at which Brown lives his life, there’s nothing wrong with that, and he should record it accurately. But the pleasure of reading about it is faint.
Fame Adjacent, Sarah Skilton (Sep. 20-24)
A fun and original novel. The narrator is a former child actor, the only one from her troupe of singers and dancers not to become famous. The first part of the book has her in rehab for her internet addiction. The second part has her road-tripping to New York for a reunion with her castmates. It’s a lively book (a quality in short supply in too many novels), and I want to commend Skilton for pulling off a trick that’s harder than you might think: the fake TV show that she creates is credible. Often the fictional media contained within books (and TV shows and movies, for that matter) seems either implausible – we don’t believe a TV show so described would ever air – or like a poorly disguised version of an existing piece of media – distracting us as we look for the Easter eggs in this universe’s version of Seinfeld. But Skilton’s invention (Diego and the Lion’s Den) is totally believable, and its details are nicely fleshed out.
Seek You, Kristen Radtke (Sep. 21-25)
Another bit of brainy graphic essaying by Radtke. The subject is loneliness – Radke’s and America’s. Surrounding the personal reflections, there is a lot of well-synthesized research and bright analysis. And how about this for a good definition to carry with you: “Loneliness isn’t necessarily tied to whether you have a partner or a best friend or an aspirationally active social life. It’s a variance that rests in the space between the relationships you have and the relationships you want.” My only complaint is about a section where, talking of television sitcoms, she blurs the important distinction between canned laugh tracks and the laughter of live studio audiences – but that’s only a personal hang-up of mine.
All About Me!, Mel Brooks (Sep. 25 - Oct. 1)
A very happy memoir by a very happy guy. Lots of warm stories stretching from his childhood to his dotage, and some triumphant moments where he outwits boneheaded Hollywood executives. He’s justly proud of his own talents and achievements, but he spends more of the book heaping genuine, specific praise on other actors and writers he’s worked with. Tellingly, the only colleague who’s recollected with even the slightest negativity is Jerry Lewis…
Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, Chester Brown (Oct. 1-3)
An illustrated collection of stories from the Bible that Brown believes evince a pro-sex work attitude in early Christianity. As somebody with almost no preexisting feelings about the Gospels, I’m an easy mark for any interpretation. Brown, who has spent the last 25 years visiting prostitutes, is not exactly a detached analyst here, but whatever his motivations for writing this book, his evaluation of the Bible’s text is convincing enough. The trouble for me was that, irrespective of their political meaning, I found the Gospel stories themselves distasteful and unkind.
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs (Oct. 2-4)
The blurbs all compare him to David Sedaris, but that’s inapt. There’s nothing funny about Burroughs’ story, and the comparison seems to me like laziness, an inability to distinguish two very different types of memoir. With that pedantry out of the way: this is a good book. As a teenager, Burroughs is put in the care of his mother’s psychiatrist, a dangerous blowhard who keeps a filthy and miserable home. Burroughs witnesses and endures a lot of horrors over the course of five years, and though he’s never self-pitying nor seeking of praise, I did feel admiration for his escape and his ability to transmogrify his life into art.
Hollywood Said No!, Bob Odenkirk & David Cross with Brian Posehn (Oct. 6-8)
Two never-produced screenplays and other sundry material by some of the brains behind Mr. Show. Not their best work, but I smiled a lot while reading it. I did object, however, to their attacks on Jamie Kennedy, towards whom I feel an odd and misapplied sense of protectiveness.
The Road Through the Wall, Shirley Jackson (Oct. 8-14)
Jackson’s first novel, in which she exposes the ugliness, prejudice and misery beneath the surface of a privileged upper-class neighborhood. That’s pretty shopworn material these days, but remember: she did it in 1948. The novel is decent – I liked the scene where two teenagers seek a transgressive thrill but the best they find is a secret tea party with a butler – and the gruesome ending does still shock. But it’s weighed down by having too many indistinguishable characters.
Clyde Fans, Seth (Oct. 14-17)
A meticulously drawn book about a generational struggle to keep open a family business. The artwork is impressive, but I just can’t summon up any enthusiasm for this story and its themes: the agony of being a salesman, the inability of men of a certain generation to share their feelings, and more of that midcentury nostalgia I complained about earlier.
Ostrich, Matt Greene (Oct. 15-17)
A 12-year-old boy with brain tumor narrates an otherwise typical story of growing up (parents, friends, school, burgeoning sexual feelings). There are some clever and funny lines, but I grew less and less convinced I was hearing the honest voice of a child as opposed to the practiced remarks of a novelist.
Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King (Oct. 20-29)
A retired detective is taunted by a murderous psychopath and begins a private investigation to catch the killer. My hopes for this one weren’t quite met. The plotting is fine, and some tension builds well in the last act, but none of the characters feel like more than placeholders, and the gruesome details (particularly in the killer’s backstory) are nowhere near King’s best. Also, King’s efforts to write dialogue for a Black teenager result in some embarrassing lines that I won’t quote here.
The Only Story, Julian Barnes (Nov. 4-9)
I picked it up because it was about tennis, and discovered that Barnes was an author I should have been reading for years. A man recounts his “only story,” of being a college student home for the summer and falling in love with a middle-aged woman he’s partnered with for a game of doubles. The direction the story takes doesn’t matter. What I liked about the book was how intelligently and unpretentiously Barnes writes, and how deeply he digs into important questions. The book opens with, “Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.” And before you have a chance to reflect on how well put that is, Barnes challenges himself: “You may point out—correctly—that it isn’t a real question. Because we don’t have the choice…if you can control it, then it isn’t love.” The array of thoughts those four sentences evoke would be accomplishment enough for most novelists, but it’s only the first of many treats Barnes offers.
Hummingbird Heart, Travis Dandro (Nov. 5-7)
The sequel to King of King Court, picking up on Dandro’s life as he hacks his way through his teen years. All of the praise-worthy qualities of the first book are present…but less so. The intelligence of the writing and the appeal of the drawing style are still there, but the subject is less interesting, more well-worn: shoplifting teenage boys learning to put aside their anger and face the fact that they must grow up. It’s done well, but only well, and Dandro's previous book set the bar higher.
Palimpsest, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom (Nov. 9-12)
A very angry memoir of an adoptee seeking out her roots. The author directs anger at her adopted country, at her country of birth, at bureaucrats from all over, and at herself. All of which is well-earned, and the point that Sjöblom makes early on is that she wishes to counteract the rosy prevailing narrative of the experience of international adoptees. I would push back slightly by noting that Sjöblom sometimes seems to not just want to dismantle that narrative, but to replace it with one that’s equally overbroad – her own – not realizing that that would be just as limiting. But that minor quibble aside, this is worth reading.
Somebody’s Daughter, Ashley C. Ford (Nov. 12-16)
There’s a lot of trauma recounted in this memoir of growing up with an abusive mother and an incarcerated father, and Ford renders it all calmly and dispassionately, yet still with a keen memory of the pain she felt. If you can handle that sort of material, this book offers it about as well as it could be done. And Ford shares a few memories that stick with you long after the book is done, like a scene of her grandmother setting ablaze a nest of snakes.
The Third Person, Emma Grove (Nov. 16-20)
This one sneaks up on you, and soon, you’ll be flying through its 900 pages. Grove is a transgender woman visiting a therapist to be approved for hormone therapy. As the sessions progress and Toby the therapist learns more about Grove and her past, he begins to think that she may have Dissociative Identity Disorder, which he feels must be addressed prior to any other medical care. The drawing style is simple and flat, and much of the book is given over to repetitive scenes of therapy sessions, which may sound boring, but it’s actually very easy to become absorbed in their discussions. And the therapist isn’t just a prop to give Grove somebody to talk to; he’s a real character whom we see as clumsier and more unprofessional the longer the book goes on.
This Is Not My Beautiful Life, Victoria Fedden (Nov. 17-20)
While Fedden was pregnant and staying with her family in Florida, her parents’ house was raided by the feds. This memoir touches on her dysfunctional family, their legal travails, and the goofy (and, to my eyes, could-not-be-less-desirable) experience of living in Florida. The details of her family’s unique experiences give the book some early momentum, but the humor doesn’t progress beyond zaniness, and eventually, the book spins off in fragmentary, underexplored directions in an unsuccessful search for a point.
Just After Sunset, Stephen King (Nov. 24-30)
I broke my informal rule and read more than one Stephen King book in 2022. This one is a collection of stories, and it’s more successful than Mr. Mercedes. There are 13 stories, and at least nine of them work. Particularly good are “Stationary Bike,” one of those tales about a living painting; “The Gingerbread Girl,” about an obsessive runner; and N., an old-fashioned novella about a psychiatrist who takes on his patient’s obsession.
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky, Jana Casale (Dec. 1-8)
A highly internal novel about a Millennial in Boston who aspires to be a writer. No, don’t run away: this one is actually good. Leda, the protagonist, is seen in a number of quiet, precise vignettes, moving through college and her early 20s, trying to be a friend and a lover and a daughter and a romantic partner. I thought I’d had my fill of these stories (both from other books and from my own droning life), but I found room to let this one in. My interest waned in the last third, once the character grows up and we accelerate through her adulthood and old age, but up until then, it’s absorbing.
Fun, Paolo Bacilieri (Dec. 2-5)
A graphic novel about the history of the crossword puzzle, woven around a knowingly melodramatic mystery, all told in a vaguely meta style. It’s pretty busy, and though it delivers on the fun promised in the title while you’re reading it, it doesn’t stick with you.
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (Dec. 10-15)
A book my mom was recommending to everyone 25 years ago. An askew story of the Antichrist being swapped at birth and of the junky Armageddon that follows. It’s cute and funny, and though I get a little impatient with British whimsy these days, it's well-deployed here. The cast is so sprawling that it becomes a little unwieldy – this is probably an asset in its miniseries adaptation – but there aren’t any characters whose sections you dread.
With the Fire on High, Elizabeth Acevedo (Dec. 23-29)
The first young adult novel I had read in many years, about a high school senior with a talent for cooking who must learn to trust in and prioritize her own dreams. It had been a while since I read a book with a lesson, and shifting gears took some time. But once I did, I was happy to go along and cheer the main character’s triumph. I read most of this book on a six-hour train ride through California’s Central Valley, seated next to a man without a neutral odor, so its many descriptions of aromatic food were very welcome.
***
It was not my favorite year of reading, but curiously, I read more books in 2022 than in any other year since I’ve been keeping track. Maybe it was overextension that led to a less positive experience. Maybe my mood was brought down by two or three too many painful memoirs. Or maybe I should just internalize the lessons of Ted Heller and Jack Richardson, and accept that sometimes life deals you a bum hand. That can be true of a year or of a reading list.
But I did discover those two authors. And finally mark off Dracula, The Catcher in the Rye, and Frankenstein. And one Susan Orlean makes up for a hundred Brownsvilles. In order to maintain my enthusiasm for writing in the face of the constant beatings 2022 offered, I had to accept the old lesson about taking pleasure in the creative act itself and not being preoccupied about where the final product would lead me. That equanimous outlook is just as useful pointed towards the writing of others, remembering that, whatever the yearly average turns out to be, the pleasure of reading any one good book is never diminished.
#reading list#robertson davies#tim lane#miriam toews#lee lai#ha jin#susan orlean#penn and teller#bram stoker#david lodge#michael kupperman#joe ollman#charles jackson#jhumpa lahiri#dylan hicks#elizabeth harrower#dakota macfadzean#paul hornschemeier#edmund g love#craig thompson#travis dandro#nancy mairs#ian mcewan#gene luen yang#thien pham#kazuo ishiguro#charles beaumont#sophia glock#gish jen#jd salinger
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Q@A
a) anon, shame Trevor Zegras is injured. I like his technical style of the game when he's serious about hockey and frankly, he's a little bit crazy off ice but adorable. We all need to laugh so to his horrible footwear. He is on the left..I know he is dorky as well and the shoes are super trendy.
B) anon, I am glad to see Tazer but I am not glad to see him in this puffy face state it is puffier than before and definitely he has not bloated face during his struggles in 2020, 2021. I'd point a finger on Meghan Butler in his life as all Marcus Aubrey's crap quasi medicine is up to Tazer's throat. He also clinges to old memories, having his old buddies over. What a coach said about his moods is quite scary. Maybe also booster by the intake of Aubrey's bs.
He's still handsome and adorable when he's serious, not furious but you see he is not all right and so his look aka so bloated face. Either health problems with kidneys that he does not admit etc or some substance by M Aubrey's use. Obviously it's a circle because he struggles withbkack of his routine and old team mates, changes, Lindsey pregnant again, Kaner is gone, his Blackhawks career ends soon so he clinges more and more to that bad support...tjan breaking the circle and facing the music...and these people are more fragile and getting more and more addicted to certain sect or drugs, pills etc..
C) anon, the Blackhawks injury list is vast, I am sorry for Tomorrow, Reese Johnson, good Tyler Johnson is back but they did not play so bad in last couple of games based on the injuries and newbies. I guess Seth Jones is calmer captain than nervous Tazer who was amazing when he did well off and on ice because he can't deal with losses.
D) anon, Crosby's long term crazy fan Ashley who is followed by Tazer is off the railing and on memory lane to Vancouver which was 13 years ago. Please...with all of that
You need to ask her or betteer, try to ask Sidney Crosby and Marketa whether they have dated, slept together, kissed or had a fling...i do not bother and no way after 10 years like Ashley. Obviously Kathy is in his life despite her denials and calling her a generic bland blonde. I am not a big fan of Kathy as I think she's bland lazy Step ford Wife but she is pretty and a serious partner of Sidney Crosby. Marketa and Kathy are the similar type at least in face department and Crosby has reacted to the Blackhawks and Hossa's photoshoot of 12 apostles of Last Supper as a copycat of flat caps so .....speculate...Ashley has been obsessed with her beside Kathy Leather for ages. We do not know how many children Marketa has and so about her partner's. We know 2, one of 8 years and one soccer player. Se has a baby boy apparently but no one knows. Whether true or not I guess when she will crawl out with any kid on the skates it will be definitely a champion with a huge game IQ and these two Vancouver goal champions once young bucks Crosby and Toews will start their own families. They are 36 and 35 years old this year for the sake of good hockey DNA and dynasties!!!!!
E) it is Nico Hirshier's sister, calm down, anon also a sister of Nurse etc is very good looking. At least NJ Devils are devils on the ice once again after years of tanking.
f) did you see Lafranieree and his cheeky sneaky puck between legs manoeuvre? He is brilliant if he wants to be as he is older now. It is stupid to put just 18 years old kid into NHL season to play permanently but he plays better with Kakko and he's too much sensitive or angry. When he gets his crap out of his head it's an amazing smart game and footwork to watch. Then Russian players and I don't mean Ovechkin empty entree but Kaprizov and his magic. I can't find on my stupid cell phone a video of certain game but I am not able to upload photos from that phone to Tumblr as well...
g)anon, I guess Dallas and San Jose players have huge competition in Skinner and new Swedish defenseman of the Oilers regarding moustache and a stubble, well, a beard department so Hannah Montana's dad with his doppelganger with a mullet in Mullet Arena. What a place to celebrate.
#Jack Hughes#Kappo Kakko#Nhl#Ice hockey#Nick Hirshier's#New Jersey Devils#Jonathan Toews#Captain#chicago blackhawks#Seth Jones#Reese Johnson#patrick kane#Sidney Crosby#kathy leutner#Pittsburgh Penguins#Trevor Zegras#anaheim ducks#San Jose Sharks
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YOU ASK ME TO SHOUT AT YOU AND I WILL SHOUT AT YOU. 💗💗💗
For the writers ask game, 17 and 30!
THE SHOUTS CHARGE MY BATTERY THANK YOU 🥰🥰🥰
17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?
OMG LOLLLL I literally don't know how to put my desires into words here...
maybe a Cottage Core!AU where everything is soft and everyone is happy? I really really like fluffy fics where plot is secondary
maybe a Bodyguard!AU where the person being protected is actually pretty badass, so they're like "I'LL BE FINE, I DON'T NEED AN OAF LIKE YOU DEFENDING ME. I CAN DO IT BETTER MYSELF" but then shit goes down and the 'big oaf' risks their life to safe the other person because over the course of the protective detail they've become really fond of their charge (despite the disparaging comments), and the person being protected finally realizes 1) big oaf is actually really good at their job, and 2) their life would be much sadder with out them. So they angst a little from the injuries but then get rid of the bad guys and live happily ever after lol (I feel like this isn't the most original because there is Harry Potter fic that fits this perfectly, but IDC I LIKE IT OKAY)
this isn't really an AU, but I also LOVE fics where I have to suspend my disbelief from canon? I have a few fics that super tickled my fancy here:
Toews/Kane (hockey RPF): Every Little Thing He Does (is magic) the world building and the use of magic in this is EPIC
Lan Zhan/Wei Ying (MDZS): Atlas the crossover with Tian Guan Ci Fu is pure genius
THERE WAS A SW ONE that was Jango Fett/Obi-Wan where Jango was a bounty hunter and Obi-Wan was an omega pleasure slave (he somehow left the order?) who Jango visits a few times (the smut was to die for) before saving up enough to buy off Obi-Wan's debt, they run off to live in a cottage and have some kids, in the end Quinlan finds Anakin (their kid) who is overflowing with the Force and Obi-Wan who he believed to be dead this whole time. Anyways that's all I can remember from the fic, but I THINK IT GOT TAKEN DOWN. If anyone has it saved, PLEASE LINK ME THANK YOU
30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?
I am definitely a visualizer when I write and a lot of the time I need to put myself in the situation (how would I feel if this happened?, is this position natural for me?, etc.), which is challenging in 2 situations: 1) when the scene is super sensory and foreign, and 2) long-fic where the future ideas are still kind of nebulous
For situation 1: definitely Ch 3 (and Ch 4, which is in the works) of How Anakin Got his Groove Back. I'm uhhhhhh NOT experienced in BDSM irl at all, so trying to imagine some of the scenes took a lot of brain power and/or visual reference (lmao)... sometimes I got distracted... BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY it was a really tough exercise of translating feeling into words in a tangible way. I'm not sure what the effect is yet... time will tell, I think I still need more practice at it.
For situation 2: Transference is the ongoing struggle. Tackling a work that I think is going to be around 150k as someone who had never written more than 10k before was SO daunting. It's taught me a lot about pacing, planning, and coming to terms with the fact mistakes ARE OKAY!
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trying to figure out how much rookie jonny could bench press (for reasons) and found this quote i'd never seen
Toews did not mind working out in front of a room full of scouts, strength and conditioning coaches and media. “I think it maybe helps you a little bit and gives you some motivation to have that crowd right in front of you,” he said. “You have the adrenaline pumping and you don’t really feel it until the near end.”
tell us more about how you like having all the eyes on you, jonny, making you push yourself just that little bit harder, knowing it's worth it because everyone will see just how good you're being.
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Thanks for tagging me @farminglesbian ^_^
Rules: answer 10 questions and tag 10 people you want to know better
Relationship status: as a matter of fact, today is my 8 year anniversary with my girlfriend <3
Favourite colour: red and green
Three favourite foods: ooof, tough one. I love carbs, so potato, pasta, bread, but I also love vegetables.
Song stuck in my head: basically any song sung by Jessie Buckley part of the recording of Cabaret (2021). But in particular "Don't Tell Mama" and "Maybe This Time"
Last thing I listened to: "Xanadu" by Olivia Newton-John from the official San Junipero playlist
Last thing I googled: book titles recommended by Kristina Tonteri-Young
Time: 11.30 pm
Dream trip: tough one too. Hmm, city trip but also a cottage on the country side? Hiking, beach, discovering ancient sites, museums
Anything I really want: long comfy weekends with my girlfriend
Currently reading: "Women Talking" Miriam Toews and "Don't Touch My Hair" by Emma Dabiri. But also Avatrice smut fan fiction haha
Last song: see above "last thing I listened to"
Last movie: "Triangle of Sadness" at the cinema
Last series: just started "Dead To Me", but I also finished S1 of "Vikings Valhalla" this week
Sweet, savoury, or spicy: all of it
Currently working on: I'm working on my motivation to do some training during the week to build up strength for my weekly archery class
Craving: my comfy bed
Tea or coffee: coffee once a day for breakfast and during winter I drink about 5 cups of tea at the office
Tagging (if you feel like it):
@pensoakspaper @fourorfivemovements @cayoz @spidermimi @bipolarandannoyed
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