Book things

LGBT Ebooks on sale!

aquapages // eline3 Comments

I already made this post for my book tumblr, so I thought why not take two minutes to post it here as well and just take it down when the sale disappears. I have no idea if it’s a coincidence that so many books are on sale for kindle on amazon right now, but probably everyone in charge of this has just gone “it’s the start of pride month” at the same time.

I found a handful of different lgbt (and a few other) kindle books I’ve wanted for a long time on sale on amazon today by accident, but it’s so easy to miss so what I do is just have a kindle wishlist of ebooks that are expensive (often because just released) and then just scroll through semi-regularly, because it will tell you the percentage the price dropped with. Also fuck amazon and authors should be paid a lot and all that, but I’m also a poor uni student (also without access to library bc of corona) so forgive me.

If you didn’t know; https://queerbooksforteens.com/ is an amazing service that tells you what kind of representation each queer book has.

Also I would love to know how you find out as a reader when books on your TBR are on sale! I tried the bookbub service for a while, but it seems to have gotten worse and I’m giving up on that soon.

Books on sale (most I have yet to read, but really want to); 

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward: 

Not queer, but I just heard about it. It’s written by black author and about a poor african-american family struggling after hurricane Katrina, has magical realism elements it seems. 

Heartstopper vol. 1 by Alice Oseman: fav of mine! queer boys, m/m relationship

The darkest part of the forest by Holly Black: love this book, only a gay side character

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault:

Lgbt fantasy with aromantic asexual characters and ownvoices for that, and I think basically the whole cast of characters are queer

Let’s Talk about Love by Claire Kann: biromantic asexual black main character, ownvoices

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo: ownvoices, transgender woman as main character

TV recs & more queer books | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline1 Comment

Alternative title; it’s all worse and better at the same time. the irony.

Three things on my mind:

  • So .. my life right now just consists of math, more math, a tiny breakdown where I speak my grievances out loud, to mostly empty air and the occassional puzzled family members walking by, along with playing the mobile version of pocket camp, because I can’t afford a switch. Next week it’s going to be the same, if you replace math with physics. Ahh, this was not how I imagined the second semester of my first year doing a physics bachelor to be, but oh well. Right now it’s wolframalpha all the way.
  • So the situation is less than ideal (also see; bad internet – have to buy 4G when exams, physical health w/ chronic illness worse) and only two of my five exams is done, yet I’ve felt so much better the last three weeks than I have since the beginning of march. Who knows? Nothing much has changed, other than I also now have exams, but it’s a clear goal in front of me to deal with even though my body is in uproar.
  • Things to watch; Outer Banks on Netflix is a great tv series to binge, with a cast of morally grey characters, and some really aesthetic good scenes as well. The Goldfinch movie adaptation got really bad reviews when it came out last year, but I finally watched it (I LOOVE the book) and it wasn’t bad! Actually to the point where I would recommend it, if you go in with quite low expectation. It has the usual problems of a movie trying to fit a big and complex book (so many different settings, spanning over multiple years) into a two hour movie. But the moments it included, it included well. I especially love both the young and the adult Boris.
Outer Banks on Netflix
The Goldfinch movie adaptation

Also for quarantine feelings;

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • I’ve been listening to first “War on Peace” by Ronan Farrow, as I thought I could fall asleep to his voice narrating the strange world of diplomacy and the importance of it; turns out diplomacy in Afghanistan is quite interesting and the book absolutely fantastic overall. I really enjoyed 11 hours of that to have a break from maths, it was magical.
  • And then I started the audiobook version of “Catch and Kill” by Farrow afterwards, taking care to listen during daylight as it’s the most upsetting story about not only the wave of sexual assaults that was brought into light with the ‘MeeToo wave’, the most focus being on Farrow’s reporting of Harvey Weinstein, but how he wasn’t allowed to publish the story and kept from pursuing it for so many months. It was quite the journey, and I felt so much for each of the victims as we get to hear more about what it took for them to decide to come forward. Ahh, I’ll have to write its own post after I’m done with these exams, because more people need to read this book in particular.
  • I might have cleansed my head after all that by reading the three first books in the very YA “The Selection” series by Kiera Cass. It’s so cheesy, but what made me continue was how it was more ‘The Hunger Games’ vibe than I expected.

Added to TBR:

  • Felix ever after by Kacen Callender (young adult, lgbt: trans mc)
  • The program by Suzanne Young (young adult, dystopia)
  • The last true poets of the sea by Julia Drake (young adult, lgbt)
  • The mermaid, the witch, and the sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (fantasy, lgbt: sapphic romance)
  • Clap when you land by Elizabeth Acevedo(young adult, lgbt): I’ve read & liked “The poet X”
  • The good girl’s guide to murder (mystery): recommended by the author Maureen Johnson on twitter or something
  • Sawkill girls by Claire Legrand (horror-ish, lgbt: f/f romance I think)
  • If I was your girl by Meredith Russo (young adult, lgbt: trans mc)
  • No matter the wreckage by Sarah Kay (poetry)

let’s hate everything for a little while | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline4 Comments

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • By grand central station I sat down and wept by Elizabeth Smart
  • An unquiet mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
  • When we collided by Emery Lord
  • The midnight lie by Marie Rutkoski

Added to TBR:

  • It’s kind of a funny story by Ned Vizzini (mental illness, tw: suicidal mc)
  • The shadows between us by Tricia Levenseller (new YA fantasy release that I’ve seen a lot of praise about): also has a female mc that is trying to marry and then kill the current kind, wooo drama)
  • City of ghosts by Victoria Schwab (middle grade or YA fantasy/paranormal): set in Edinburgh and especially Mary’s Close which was my highlight of my trip there!
  • When we were magic by Sarah Gailey (new YA lgbt witch fantasy): it promises queer witch girls and a good friendgroup.
  • The story of more by Hope Jahren (science book about climate change): the author already proved she could write with the fantastic Lab Girl, so I’m really looking forward to this book
  • Catch and kill by Ronan Farrow (nonfiction; about sexual predators): I didn’t know Ronan Farrow was the journalist behind publishing the Weinstein case before recently

Three things on my mind:

  • I’m not doing good in the middle of this. I wasn’t doing good going into it. Just got in touch with therapist again after radio silence since I left the city three weeks ago, so that’s good. I might’ve also gotten corona? Or it could’ve been any awful infection or worsening of any condition I had, but I was so incredibly ill for a bit over a week. I’m currently taking it one hour at a time, trying to not force myself to see this as extra time I should use to be productive, because there’s an epidemic out there and everything is difficult for everyone. Stay safe.
  • Our exams is still on; but from home and most of our grades are changed from A-F to pass/not pass. It’s so incredibly difficult to do things, but the external university stress at least brings some degree of familiarity. It’s funny how this whole year I’ve been like “as long as university stress is my without-a-doubt biggest source of stress, I’m going to be able to do this”. I was thinking about personal mental and physical health, as well as family trouble, but well shit, who would’ve counted on a epidemic. It’s also funny how before this really went downhill, I was convinced something big was coming and that the future months looked like a dark hole and why bother planning for anything. I talked about it with my therapist, I was like “what kind of depressive anxiety is this” and then it turned out to be real.
  • Two youtube recommendations; the amazing Conan Gray dropped an album, and Hank Green conveys a connection I’d been pondering on – how his (and mine) crohn’s diagnosis and this corona outbreak changing the ordinary carries a similar feeling

Spring TBR!

aquapages // eline6 Comments

I didn’t think I would create a TBR because who knows when I’d get time to read because of university. And then it all went to hell and I need more structure in my life so here we gooo – a Spring TBR it is.

  • By grand central station I sat down and wept by Elizabeth Smart
  • The stranger by Albert Camus
  • All the lonely people by David Owen
  • The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  • On earth we’re briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
  • Permanent record by Edward Snowden
  • To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
  • Notes from underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • The incendiaries by R. O. Kwon
  • Red, white and royal blue by Casey McQuiston
  • The serpent king by Jeff Zentner
  • Catch and kill by Ronan Farrow
  • So far so good by Ursula Le Guin
  • Hermosa and Tesoro by Yesika Salgado
  • The bell jar by Sylvia Plath

(Pre-corona times) wine trip | Bi-Weekly Update

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Hey, this post was created a couple weeks ago actually, and I somehow never posted it. So I’m going to create a newer one, with all this corona stuff really impacting my life as it does many right now, but enjoy this light-hearted one hahha. Also my france/germany trip was before outbreaks happened in the area.

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • The stranger by Albert Camus (currently reading)
  • On earth we’re briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (currently reading)
  • Night sky with exit wounds by Ocean Vuong
  • Felicity by Mary Oliver
  • Soft science by Franny Choi
  • Ordinary beast by Nicole Sealey
  • Corazón by Yesika Salgado
  • When We Collided by Emery Lord

Added to TBR:

  • Loveless by Alice Oseman (ace! character! and fantastic author)
  • Red, white & royal blue by Casey McQuinston (gay royal romance)
  • Akata witch by Nnedi Okorafor (YA fantasy)
  • Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (magical realism & mental illness; fractured sense of self, set in Nigeria)
  • How to make a wish by Ashley Herring Blake (YA f/f romance)
  • Crier’s war by Nina Varela (queer fantasy; i’m promised f/f romance, bisexual and lesbians and enemies to lover trope)
  • Come to the rocks by Christin Haws (mermaids with f/f romance)
  • Storm in a teacup by Helen Czerski (science! physics! this could be very good or very bad)
  • Tesoro by Yesika Salgado (poetry)

Three things on my mind:

  • I’m still doing this physics first year of university thing, funny enough. Is it crazy that I thought I would fail before now? It’s not going great overall, but I really like the physics and uni and friends part. One reason it’s not going great overall; I’ve been sick. A bit of a physical illness. But mostly, looking back, my productivity has been greatly damaged by mental illness as well, leading to general inconsistency. Ah yes, I was also diagnosed with a mental illness this week. Which I didn’t think would happen? But it made sense and oh well, it’s going to take some time to get used to having a label on my troubles.

  • I was in France!! And Germany!! Drinking wine!! With this physics & maths wine club I’m in. I became a real wine enthusiast on one (1) trip, and two wine tastings. I also might’ve smiled too wide at the table when the last and most fancy wine expert basically GURGLED his wine, like in parodies. AND MY BOYFRIEND, GERMAN-SPEAKING, HAD TO TRANSLATE THIS GUY SAYING IN A STERN VOICE “THIS MIGHT SEEM STRANGE, AS THE YOUNG WOMAN IS LAUGHING, BUT IT HELPS TO -” (insert expand surface and tastebuds and all that explanation). I was too many glasses of wine in and too entertained to be embarassed, but it was embarassing. And beautiful – the whole trip. The most embarassing moment, for who I’m not sure, happened while we were all learning about making wine, from someone who had more humor. My best friend said what I itched to say, but decided not to; “oh we make wine too”, pointing to the leader of the group. And he had to swifly try, and fail, to explain is that our university wine club’s wine is not made from grapes picked carefully and hundreds of year’s of expertise; but y taking basically grape juice, adding yeast and trying to get a high alcohol percentage. I smiled the whole rest of the tour, while the wine expert repeatedly turned to our leader and spoke to him like he knew the process, waiting for the moment we were alone and my best friend to get yelled at. It was all I hoped for. Lesson learned; don’t expect a bunch of physics & math students to take the social cue in any situation.

  • So the trick to read more books again is to take a flight to France/Germany (it was the border, so we were both places), as well as be just sick in general and forced to relax aka read.

Authors on Social Media | Top Ten Tuesday

aquapages // eline1 Comment

I follow around 270 people on twitter; mostly authors, science people, book blogs, some celebrities and not to forget the amazing animal videos accounts.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week.

Reviews are linked (as always)!

Maggie Stiefvater is the queen of everything in life

  • Author of The raven cycle, Call down the hawk, The scorpio races and just generally see the life through a magical lense and a love for her car
  • Recently deleted her tumblr and I understand but am still in mourning. By recently it was july.
https://twitter.com/mstiefvater/status/1207648316332355584

Alice Oseman

Jonny Sun

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Vlogbrothers even before authors; Hank & John Green

I’m following the Green brothers on all social media, so I’m not even going to link anything. I’m currently listening to Hank Green’s podcast “Delete This” with his wife Katherine literally about how he uses twitter. They’ve been on social media long enough to reflect on how they share their thoughts as creators across different types of media.

Maureen Johnson

It took a while from reading Maureen Johnson’s books as a teen to connecting her to the same person as the Maureen that was friends with Hank & John Green and occassionally joined in on videos. She’s been here a while, she knows her stuff and is really interesting.

Hope Jahren

She’s the author of one of my all-time favourite books, Lab Girl! It’s part memoir even as a science book and her twitter really continues those small insights into her daily life and thoughts. I wouldn’t have known so quickly about her new release, coming in march; The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here without her having a twitter presence and promoting it. She also lives in the same country as me, Norway, and really gets the culture:

Neil Gaiman

  • Author of Norse mythology, Coraline, American gods, The graveyard book, etc etc.
  • Twitter
  • The best parts of Neil Gaiman on twitter is what Amanda Palmer posts.

As a honorable mention, I’m going to just throw out there that I really dislike how Jay Kristoff uses social media in particular. For someone who easily block people and don’t want to be annoyed at stupid things aka don’t usually catch up on book twitter drama, he’s a good example of an author that just needs to think more about what the fuck he’s doing on social media. Have some impulse control.

Exciting Book Releases Spring 2020

aquapages // eline2 Comments

The Hand of the Wall (Truly Devious #3) by Maureen Johnson

Release date: 21. January

Why I want to read it: this series is just great, and I love Maureen Johnson’s writing in general

Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland

Release date: 4. February

Why I want to read it: The first book Dread Nation was such an interesting mix of historical setting, diversity, kickass armed girls and zombies.

Heartstopper vol. 3 by Alice Oseman

Release date: 6. February

Why I want to read it: Heartstopper vol. 1 and 2 was so so great and I need more of this cute gay love

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey

Release date: 3. March

Why I want to read it: queer friendgroup of witches. that’s what I know and it’s definitely enough to get me interested.

Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6)

Release date: 31. March

Why I want to read it: I don’t really? I have nr. 5, Defy Me, 3 out of five stars after having loved the whole series. But it is the finale, so I’m going to hope for the best.

Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan

Release date: 7. April

Why I want to read it: I like this kind of fantasy, or at least I liked Wicked Saints, but I’m nervous to how well this sequel to a debut novel is going to hold up. Seems like a tough job.

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Release date: 30. April

Why I want to read it: Oseman is a great author, and I’m really looking forward to this + the main character is asexual.

2019 Wrap-Up & TBR Update

aquapages // eline1 Comment

I made a TBR for the whole of 2019 at the beginning of the year, thinking it would be the thing that finally made me follow a TBR. My big problem is that I usually don’t work with planning things out. I can have a general direction or options, but if it’s dinner, books or anything in between, I never respond well to a strict plan.

GOALS – to read more widely with science books, poetry, books about writing, new YA releases and some classics, along with the fantasy books I love. I also had a very personal goal of reading about physical pain, which I find very difficult to describe, and wanted different authors’ take on it. That last bit just didn’t happen at all, let’s start with pointing that out.

Books I read from the TBR:

I read 15 out of 47 books on my 2019 TBR … and 48 other books not on it. 63 books in total, which I’m really happy with considering the last four months of the year was very unproductive in reading-sense because of starting university.

Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson was a dnf/kind of read. It’s built on “letters to a young poet” and was interesting at times, but also dated and dry.

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman (review) was a great intro read, as Feynman explains physics concepts very well. I didn’t like his six not-so-easy pieces as much.

Alex’s Adventures in Numberland is a book I’ve kind of paused, because I didn’t finish it before summer vacation ended and now I’m surrounded by math, but it was really promising.

Branches by Rhiannon McGavin was the only of the TBR poetry collections I got to and it’s amazing.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson I just picked up this christmas, but he’s one of my fav authors.

Women in Science (review) is one of the best books I’ve read this year. So cute illustrations, so many brilliant women. Can be gifted to any age.

New releases

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown (review) was a great book. I had my issues with The Wicked King by Holly Black (review). These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling (review) was not everything I hoped for, but nearly.

Heartstopper vol. 1 by Alice Oseman (review) was stunning and queer and great. I also read vol. 2. I recently devoured The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson, the sequel to Truly Devious, and liked it. Solitaire by Alice Oseman (review) was the let-down of the year – I love the author, but it’s obvious it was written by a teenager.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren was my ultimate favourite book this year! Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (review) was another let-down. Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard (review) was a refreshing YA book.

Did I achieve my goals?

I read enough books this year. And I had a period of reading more poetry, even if it was mostly not the ones on the list. I definitely read more science books as well, and most of the new YA releases I wanted to get to. Where I failed hard was books about writing, partly also because I’ve been writing less than expected. I regret not reading the classics I wanted either. Thing is, this big TBR and goals worked a lot better than they seemed to. During September and October I read zero fiction books, which is rare for me. In November I read only two. About 30% of the books on my TBR was read this year, but everything considered – it wasn’t terrible.

The biggest surprise and win of this year of blogging was the June Pride Library 2019 Challenge (all the posts I did here), which I suddenly decided to join amidst exams and also made me do A LOT more investigation into which types of queer books were out there.

christmas isn’t easy & lots of reading | Bi-Weekly Update

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New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • I’ve been rereading the All for the game series, obviously
  • Call down the hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, the first book of the new Dreamer series about Ronan Lynch was amazing
  • The vanishing stair by Maureen Johnson, the second book of the Truly Devious series was a great read as well
  • Six not-so-easy pieces by Richard Feynman wasn’t really what I expected, as I was surprised at how much I’ve absorbed of physics lately, but it’s a great intro book to physics concepts (a sequel to six easy pieces if you will)!
  • Physics of the impossible by Michio Kaku (currently reading)
  • Elantris by Brandon Sanderson – just finished!!! I’m confused by my feelings toward this book, I need some time to think. But while Sanderson is great at worldbuilding, I felt the characters and the world lacked something in comparison to his other books.
  • The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson (young adult).
  • Borderline by Mishell Baker (review posted!)

Added to TBR:

  • A lot of textbooks for the many classes I want to take, but don’t have time in my schedule for (I’m already two math classes over the average amount, let’s see if I have to cut one during the semester)

I rewatched the poet Rhiannon McGavin’s 2018 books to read, which made me add a lot more books to my TBR:

  • Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit (nonfiction, essay)
  • A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer (poetry, essay)
  • Look by Solmaz Sharif (poetry)
  • Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros (poetry)
  • The Vanishing Princess by Jenny Diski (short story)

And then I watched The brain scoop’s Emily Graslie recommend science books:

  • The Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World by Emma Marris (nonfiction, science)

Three things on my mind:

  • I watched the Looking for Alaska mini-series and while Alaska herself wasn’t like I saw her first reading the book, I really overall liked the series. It had it flaws, but it could’ve been done so much worse and the essence of the story was there. It definitely was enough to make me cry, twice.
  • I’m not in my own tiny apartment because it’s christmas. And I’m not “home”, as in the family house I left from this summer, because my family moved. In other words, there’s a lot of things I hate about this christmas time already (it’s an inconvenient time to be sick as a chronically ill person), and now I don’t have any of my privacy or comfortable things. I do love seeing my family, and all the love going around. I just really miss the small amount of stability I’ve built up around myself during the past months, and I miss my friends.
  • But! I expected this christmas break sadness to fall upon my fragile self! (or fragile mental health, this girl is doing something about that first thing next year). And I took precautions by booking a trip to Edinburgh so I wouldn’t be (hopefully) too long in one place. This has brought with it its own stress, but I’m so excited to go. I would be happy to take any advice if you’ve ever been to Edinburgh!

Maybe Reads #1 |Declutter My TBR

aquapages // eline4 Comments

So I have a shelf of “maybe” reads on goodreads. Let’s try to clean it out, shall we? A bit of a spring clean. And then I didn’t post this until fall. But you get what I mean. I’ve already tried the Down the TBR Hole for trying to make this TBR shorter, but these books are more at random.

Rags & Bones by Marr, Gaiman and a lot more

Date: October 2016

Goodreads

Retelling of classic tales, which can be both really good or really bad.

Keep, if only for the Gaiman story

Timekeeper by Tara Sim

Date: December 2016

Goodreads

Reader friends seem to not like the execution, even if they like the idea of it.

Negatives: I’m not the biggest fan of badly done victorian style books, and the synopsis give me very little to go on. Also it is apart of a series.

Let go

Of fire and stars by Audrey Coulthurst

Goodreads

Negative: The synopsis of princesses and alliances of marriage wanted me to let this go

Positive: a promised big lesbian romance. This seems to be a trend for making me change my mind, hah.

Keep, for the lesbians

The song of all by Tina LeCount Myers

Goodreads

Negatives: synopsis gives me no idea of what this is

Positives: It’s set in the winter and scandinavian

Keep, it’s worth one try

The eagle tree by Ned Hayes

Goodreads

Positives: Main character is a young autistic boy, and I really want to read books from experiences I don’t know of.

Negatives: The goodreads rating is kind of bad (3.8). How is it about trees? I’m confused

Maybe?? I need some input

Girl, stolen by April Henry

Goodreads

Blind girl? Great. Kidnapping? Oh, well – Accidental kidnapping? NO, I’m out. That’s not my style, thinking about it.

Let go

The fact of a body: a murder and a memoir by Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich

Goodreads

True crime, which I like, but I don’t remember why I added this book. All the reviews seem to say nothing of substace about what’s going on.

Maybe, confused about what the book is about

Exit west by Mohsin Hamid

Goodreads

Positives: Magical realism, romance during chaos and civil war, becoming refugees

Keep, and I really rediscovered how good this seems