ten books to know me
thank you for the tag @mblematic i sat down to do this IMMEDIATELY i’ve maybe never been so excited
the secret history by donna tartt
well what do i even say about this. if you know you know. this is my favorite book ever! nothing tops it!
slow days, fast company by eve babitz
reading this book for the first time at 22 when i had just moved to LA and really started doing drugs and fucking bad actors...i cannot explain it. eve is like. the whole reason i’m a writer now still -- i stopped writing in college (too busy doing drugs and fucking bad musicians at that time) and this book inspired me to start back up and actually work hard at it. thank god.
and i do not forgive you by amber sparks
THE short story collection that made me realize i could write about whatever i felt like writing about. i’ve taken class with amber and she’s just incredible. wildly talented, excellent teacher, taught me everything i know about editing!
modern madness: an owner’s manual by terri cheney
you could insert any of terri’s books here, but i do have such a soft spot for modern madness. terri was one of the first people to really talk to me about bipolar disorder, and to help me understand what was happening to me and how to get help. her memoirs are devastating, but she’s proof of the strength people can have in the face of severe mental illness.
leaving the atocha station by ben lerner
this book has writing that i just want to bathe in. i don’t hardly ever read books by men, but ben lerner is a GENIUS. the macarthur fellowship thinks so too!
the disreputable history of frankie landau-banks by e.l. lockhart
formative formative formative. this is where i learned to love words and wordplay. also where i discovered p.g. wodehouse! horizons: broadened.
the princess diaries by meg cabot
was this series sex ed for anyone else? it was sex ed for me. i used to sneak into the high school library and check these books out when i was in like 7th grade. truly so important everybody say thank you meg cabot (thank you meg cabot!!)
the physics of sorrow by georgi gospodinov, trans. angela rodel
this book really got me into translations! i love love love it. it’s so interesting to see literature from other places, and this was the first book i read outside of school that wasn’t originally in english. so valuable and set me on quite the journey (death and the penguin i’m looking at u)
howl’s moving castle by dianna wynne jones
i think this might be my most re-read book? i try to read it every year during scorpio season, because it just has That Vibe to me. it never gets old!
rules for saying goodbye by katherine taylor
i...don’t know where to begin with this book. katherine taught me how to burn bridges with my writing and not give a fuck at all. i wish i could describe katherine, because she is someone i so adore, but she is beyond words. anyway, the protagonist of rfsg is also named kate taylor. that’s probably all i really need to say. what a woman.
honorable mention: looking for alaska by john green
HOW did i manage to stay alive after reading this book.....the damage that was done...........john green u owe my parents therapy money babe!
OOPS I FORGOT TO TAG! tagging @pancakehouse @colgatebluemintygel @moongays @thebloatedfrog @queemes @blackberry-sunset @pinklume and anyone else who wants to do it! i LOVE to see what books shaped people! what a thrill!
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Jason: the Batfam member I see most as my brother is Tim
Dick: What!!! That's no fair, I should be your brotherly-ist brother!
Dick: No offense Timmy.
Dick, turning back to Jason: But I am the one who has been your brother longest, I helped you kill that druglord, I even gave you some of my cookie dough last week!
Bruce: uhhh, back to the druglord thing-
Steph: You shared your cookie dough with him!
Jason: Sorry Dick, but there is one thing that makes you brothers more than anything else, not blood, or time, but...
Jason and Tim at the same time: Contempt
Jason: I have contempt for Tim, like all siblings should. Really the only thing I love more than hating Tim is shit talking other people with Tim. That form of contempt is how siblings bond and I will just say, surprisingly I love bonding with Tim even more than I love terrorizing Tim
Tim: aww, I didn't know we were that close
Jason, panicking cause he doesn't wanna ruin their dynamic: *punches Tim in the gut and runs out*
Tim, shouting after him: You can't take it back now, you ass
Jason: *turns around while running to give Tim the middle finger*
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Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.
Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.
Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.
Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.
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I know this is such a doomer kind of attitude but I genuinely cannot stand it when people go around talking about the ‘silent majority’ when it comes to Jew hatred. There’s two main problems I have with this statement
— Sure, these people might support Jews now, but it’s probably safe to say the majority of people in the world have deeply ingrained biases against Jews. Those biases are easily exploited, easily brought out, and easily radicalised into rabid hatred. See: large swaths of leftist spaces, who honestly seemed like sleeper agents with how fast they openly admitted raping Jews is a moral thing. There’s also the issue of a lot of these silent majority people not supporting Hamas or believing in the Aryan race or thinking that Jews have no culture and we’re just stealing it from everyone else, but still tolerating those ideas being held in other people— it shows that these people neither understand nor care about the gravity of these views, which then makes those precious biases much, much easier to show
and
— The entire point of the silent majority is that they are silent. Sure, they might chat with their Jewish friends about how bad things are, they might express sympathy in private, things like that. But when push comes to shove, when Jews are being actively murdered wide scale, they don’t show up. They leave us in the dirt. They watch quietly as the Gestappo drags their neighbours away. They look away politely as their Dhimmi shopkeeper is beaten in the street for walking on the wrong side of the pavement. They close their blinds when their friend is tied to the stake and burned alive
I know it’s comforting to think of this vague concept of the silent majority, but it’s not actually reality. I know it sucks feeling like you need to have your guard up all the time (and you don’t, just be careful), it’s going to suck a whole lot more if you put yourself into a false sense of security. The silent majority are not our friends. The silent majority are not there for us. The silent majority don’t care. We can’t just live in a nebulous idea of people who quietly tut to themselves whenever they see someone saying ‘glory to the resistance’ or ‘Jews are trying to taint the Aryan race’, we need to focus on the tangible reality, and the people who are actually present
I think this is also why I, and so many other Jews, absolutely love non-Jewish allies. There’s something so indescribably amazing to see people in this world that’s been so horrible to us standing up for us, listening to us, helping us. Allies go through a lot of shit from others because they care about us, I’ve seen it so much— they’ll get vicious hate for just associating with Jews. And they still do it. They still stick with us. Because they care, and it’s just so wonderful
Spread the love to non-Jewish allies, you are so amazing. And to the silent majority, I hope you can become the help that we desperately need
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