Book things

hospital stay & new tbr books | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline2 Comments

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. van der Kolk (non-fiction, metal health)
  • When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll (queer graphic novel)
  • A great, short book in norwegian about magic/shamans in sami culture and especially the “witch trials” in the north of Norway. It’s strange the darker parts we learn of other countries’ history in school, but not so much our own.
  • Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic, author is familiar with Navajo culture through her husband & the protagonist is Navajo)

Added to TBR:

  • Beneath the Dead Oak Tree by Emily Carroll because I read & liked her other graphic novels “When I Arrived at the Castle” and “Through the Woods”
  • Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles because I read & liked Knowles’ other, much more well-known novel “A Separate Peace” and both are set at the same boarding school, so I expect all of the classic & dark academia vibes, maybe even more homosexual undertones. I’m going to enjoy writing my queer take of a review on A Separate Peace, because although the author has denied it, there’s some definite “I’m in love with my bestfriend” moments there. As I mentioned on tumblr as I read this book in one night; “I’m 47 pages in, and had to google it to make sure since the main character is once again remarking on very specific things, like how much this athletic boy’s skin radiates, like you know – boys being boys often do ??”
  • The Magus by John Fowles (classics, mystery) because why not. And the intriguing promise of “a young Englishman who accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he befriends a local millionaire. The friendship soon evolves into a deadly game, in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas finds that he must fight not only for his sanity but for his very survival.”
  • Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter) by Thomas Harris (horror, psychological thriller) – yeah, two weeks ago I wondered whether “rewatching two seasons of Hannibal in two days are not what you should do when you’ve been sick” before having to reconnect with society and actual people. I did survive going into society, if barely – like truly, corona made its upswing again where I lived just as I stepped my foot out that door. But now that I’m stuck with myself again, why not read Hannibal as well.
  • The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is a mystery/thriller I’m sceptical if I’m going to like, I’ve seen reviews that leads me to believe it’s a very hit or miss type of book. But many of them describe it as ‘devilish’ because everyone is unreliable, which I see as a positive and what I’m looking for right now.
  • A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin because I always say I need to read more of her work, which are classics of the fantasy/science fiction genre, but I never seem to get around to it.
  • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (fantasy) because while it was released last year, it’s gotten so many good reviews (goodreads average 4.20!!!) and I’m definitely here for the queer necromancers.
  • A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos (YA fantasy, dark academia), recommended to me by a friend.

Posts I’ve loved by other bloggers:

I started reading through more blog posts from others again prior to the hospital visit, but it did give me time to spend and I found some enjoyment through posts like these –

  • ONLINE BOOKSHOPS TO SHOP AT INSTEAD OF AMAZON: BREAKING UP WITH AMAZON (PART I) by arub unwritten: I rarely buy books now and they’re mostly from norwegian bookstores. But I have also automatically bough books from bookdepository for the convenience, before I started to feel bad about that. Then I found this post which gives a pretty neat introduction, especially to other stores to look into. And it includes which places the stores ship too! Should be a requirement, jeez. Hive was pretty empty (for me at least) considering the corona-struggle of shipment, but I’ll definitely check in with them in the future again.
  • Ink-Stained Forest’s Literature Journey where they talk about exactly that, but it was a familiar & beautifully written type of journey, an example of what place and function literature can have in your life, and how it can vary over time. It also made me want to sit down and truly look at if I also have these almost episodic changes to what type of book or genre I read and the function that fills. Even if I switch between reading both for reflection and enjoyment, without always going into a book knowing which one I’ll most likely get more of.
  • Fall Reads by your reading needs by forgot second breakfast (which is a unique & impressive name): a good, short list of fall reads that gives you spooky, adventure, athmosphere & romance and reminds me I want to get to Gideon the Ninth soon.
  • Mathematical science fiction books from Book Riot: I’ve been looking for lists like these for so long! I cannot tell you accurately enough the struggle to find these types of books (or fantasy), then separate the bad mathematics from the badly promoted mathematics, but the part it plays in the book is good enough. I’m not talking about brilliant even, just good enough!! I can vouch for Zero Sum Game being good (I haven’t sat down researching all the math topics mentioned, but it seems legit and has a fun kind-of-supernatural part), although you might have different problems with that one if you’re not ready for a lot of bloodshed and morally gray characters.
  • Favorite Villains by Mary Drover: I’ve been too into villains this autumn and here was a few new ones I’ve yet to put on the never-ending TBR list of them, hahha.

Three things on my mind:

  • I had to start this week off by going to the emergency room at 5 am for major stomach pain, then I was at the hospital for five days. I’ve just been released, but they did not find out what happened even with a lot of tests. So I’ve yet to eat proper food without throwing up, meaning I was let go with a “come back if you don’t get better”. I have crohn’s disease already, which can affect your entire intestine, as well as a gallbladder diagnosis, and lung trouble that we don’t yet know the cause of – so it could be basically anything is what I’m saying. I wrote a mini-post about it just now, surprisingly it’s very reflective on illness, empathy & friendship. If there’s something I’ve done this week it’s spending a lot of time thinking, staring out into nothing. And while very original thoughts doesn’t appear right then, I’ve found it does start up this process and suddenly you find yourself with new insights, ideas and opinions.
  • An extremely specific hospital-college crossover pro-tip; if going to the hospital for closer to a week, send a message to the people you live with or, if you’re like me and extremely drugged on pain killers & pain, have one of them message the others explaining the situation. Because if not you end up with my scenario where one of the people you talk most to just happens to have a strange week where he doesn’t see the others that much and suddenly it’s been three days and he’s like “where are you?” and oops, you realize the mistake. It’s already a funny mistake, but jeez, I feel bad for both of us in this scenario… It took three whole days!
  • My friend & roommate is reading Harry Potter for the first time and discovering book fandoms. Mainly draco tiktok, which my slytherin self had to realize how many good content creators was behind it. So she is talking about wanting to write fanfics. I have to admit I’ve never written fanfiction, but I don’t know how to tell her I genuinely put a lot of effort into writing through high school. I sent the message “what do you think the chance is that I’ve ever written 50k words on a project?” and got “you? never” instantly in reply. For reference my WIP is about four times that (and needs to be cut down considerably to be useful for anything). Mostly because, looking back, you can truly see the quality of my writing progress through which parts are written first and years later, because I write weird (that’s for another time). But oh, how much this made me rethink how much of a book-nerd I seem in real life; even with the amount of books I own, apparently not a big enough one. We’re mostly all nerds here at my uni, but I am truly a book nerd as well and it’s going to be a more difficult time proving it than I thought.

Reading, Nerdy & College Gifts

aquapages // eline2 Comments

Have I scoured etsy for christmas gifts for my nerdy friends? And other literature-related ones for me? Of course, so why not make a lists of them. I’ve gotten so many good-spirited, but ultimately useless book gifts over the years – reading lights are on top of that list as “seems practical, but so many bad designs”.

Pins & Jewellery

  • Fighting invisible battles pin from fairycakes (also available as a charm) for the chronically ill or those otherwise fighting invisible battles. I want this so badly. There’s a similar one with the text “coping admirably” for a cute, heart-warming gift as well. They also have a very cute “feminist killjoy” heart-shaped charm and several trans rights and rainbow ones.
  • This I just bought! It’s space rainbows from ProudScience, and they’re just as lovely as the photo. Great as a physics/stem student, but also if you simply are a space-loving queer person. They also have a very popular rainbow chemistry glass set.

College / university

And finally what’s on top of my wishlist of practical book gifts; a book support for heavy textbooks (and other books of course). Also honestly, if you’re looking for a gift for a college/uni student in particular, I would cry for a gift card for a medium-fancy grocery store at this point, we’re poor and think way to much on how to limit food budget.

Also a reusable flask or thermo cup is likely the most used school item of mine that sometimes need to be switched out. I didn’t think about how much I drank the free coffee at school either, before I had to buy coffee myself, and currently I’m at least thinking about buying a better coffee-setup than my one-cup aeropress (no matter how practical it is to bring with me places), so I think many coffee-lovers would be interested in some kind of gift card there as well; either for equipment for coffee or the actual coffee.

When I come to think of it, with home-office, I suspect many students have pretty shitty setups for working, so if a family member is currently sitting on a non-office chair, that’s the gift to begin with. Even if it’s used, it’s so worth getting an office chair if you spend any time working from home as a college student.

The book stand in question, the one I hope will save my neck from pain going forward

Hp & the deathly weapons made my week | Bi-Weekly Update

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New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • Love and Math by Edward Frenkel
  • A Poetry Hanbook by Mary Oliver

Added to TBR:

  • The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (classics, short story, horror)
  • Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire (nonfiction, pedagogy, politics)
  • Chilling adventures of Sabrina vol. 1 by Aguirre-Sacasa and Hack (graphic novel)
  • The Little Friend by Donna Tartt: not that excited by this book synopsis or the lack of knowledge I’ve got of it even while being a big Tartt reader, but still – I got to give it a try
  • Lanny by Max Porter (magical realism, small-town)
  • American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis: because my deep down on him, Donna Tartt and their time at Bennington College has interested me enough to actually read his book even though I do believe he’s a high grade idiot at his older days from the clips I’ve seen.

Three things on my mind:

  • I always know I’m going to be offline when starting a new semester, but this time a lot was thrown at me in a row. Do you ever get the feeling that if you knew beforehand how much you would have to go through in a short amount of time – you would just not be able to? I’m not so sure I want to be able to tell the future, is what I’m saying. Anyway, I’m leaving those two massive physics exams, then writing a majorly important letter of complaint bc of misdiagnosis (in hopes of an apology or at least that the doctor not make that mistake again) the last possible day before it would be out-dated like its own “statue of limitation” kind of thing. It was then followed by a week filled with every major hospital appointment at once (bc everything was postponed until now that corona is less of a problem here) and an abrupt total worsening of my autoimmune disease. Also during those three weeks I had signed up to welcome new students, so I went to a couple social gatherings, which made me even more tired, but also might have brought the break of normalcy to save my brain a little (well, a lot).
  • Ahh, a book blog this was supposed to be. Well, there’s been a lack of book blog posts, but it’s coming. Until then I would highly recommend writing some of Mary Oliver poetry on a sheet and hang it on the wall, reciting each one as many times you want until you feel comforted enough to sleep. My favourites recently has been “Wild Geese”, “I go down to the shore”, “An old story” and “Dogfish” (link here!).
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY WEAPONS! Why hadn’t I heard of this fanedit of the first hp movie that turns every wand into a gun along with more clever & fun additions to scenes? I had doubts, thinking it would be overwhelmingly much, but it’s just far enough between the altered scene that it’s just easter-egg kind of surprises to a movie you (hopefully) already love. (I realize after some research that I didn’t know about it until now because it came out a month ago … in which I was as mentioned prev. very offline.) Here’s more info.

Strange Pet Peeves: Physical Books (Part 2)

aquapages // eline10 Comments

I made a part one talking mainly about fantasy and young adult pet peeves, around plot. This one is more the actual physical books and the format.

Book covers changing look mid-series. Or SIZE! It could so easily just be an alternate version, please why.

‘Misuse’ of foot-notes. I know footnotes in general is a touchy subject. But I’ve just decided on this personal policy ranking use of footnotes on that you shouldn’t have to read the footnotes for the plot to make sense, it should either be additional info for those interested or for example funny remarks or any other remarks that add to the story, but isn’t cruicial. I often say fuck Nevernight by Jay Kristoff for other reasons, but the footnotes … well, it’s saying something how I found that to be such a small problem compared with the rest because those footnotes are a mess.

Here’s a couple bad ones in quick succession; movie-edition covers. the trend of normal paperbacks being way too tall and large so they don’t fit on any regular shelf. I totally get it if it’s illustrations or more nonfiction with photos. Stickers on books! Like just why?

Ugly hardback dustcovers. Well, honestly I think most dust covers are annoying at best and have come to terms with that so that I can throw them away immediately (unless extremely pretty, but then the actual book underneath usually is as well). I’ve just now started to not feel guilty for it as well.

Those small reading lights. I always got them as gifts or bought them myself thinking that this model might work, but then realizing they all got some kind of feature that makes them extremely annoying. Like too narrow a lightbeam so constantly have to adjust or clipping them on a book and struggling to turn pages because it’s in the way. I would have just used a head light, but I often fall asleep reading and that doesn’t seem comfortable. Ended up just buying a kindle and haven’t looked back to be honest. I might even read a book on the kindle during the night or, back when I commuted for three years, in the darkness of the bus in the morning and then read a completely other book in physical copy during the day.

Some Strange Book Pet Peeves (Fantasy & YA)

aquapages // eline5 Comments

I didn’t think I had book pet peeves, like I don’t care if books have dog-ears for the most part, but I’ve certainly collected some related to book plots over a period of time. Here’s that collection and I’m warning you that they are mostly personal, as in I know they’re not the most popular ones out there and people will disagree.

Fictional fandoms. I don’t know why this bother me so much, I think it’s something about there, in best case, being this entire subculture readers either don’t get access to and just have to live with imagining existing or have to wade through what I find to be unecessary amounts of facts for something that isn’t real. A good example of this is “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell, that spun this whole Simon Snow trilogy out of the fantasy series the main character is a part of the fandom of. Had I read the Simon Snow series before Fangirl, I might’ve thought different about it (not that it was published yet), but hence all details included in the book felt like a waste of time in a strange, unlogical way. It’s truly a weird pet peeve, I think, and I totally admit so. But it makes me dislike books I don’t think I normally would. The only exception I can think of is “I was born for this” by Alice Oseman, but I suspect that’s because the fandom there is based around a boyband that is a huge part of the story (and also very recognizable from the ‘real world’) and so the fandom and their culture is also very based in something and understandable without much background info.

Here’s a kind of specific and small one; what the magic is called in a fantasy/magical realism world. Most often I just hate the magic of the world being called something similiar like Magik, but the author/character insisting it’s not the same as magic, like they haven’t just changed the language. I’ve seen so many cases of this. But sure, do that if you’re creating magic with a couple conditions/limits, that’s just smart.

Fairytale retellings that doesn’t either make the story their own OR stay true to the feeling of the original material. Same problem with stories from mythologies. With making it their own, I mean things like a genderbent version, a modernized one or maybe a queer one. Like truly reworking the material, but with clear inspirations. I think my other critera, staying true to the ~vibe~ so to say, has more to do with my next point. But if you retell a fairytale, without changing much of the plot or characters, maybe just setting them in another setting, how are you going to tell a better story than the one honed through mouth-to-mouth retelling for far far longer than you’re working on it? Like what do the author even add, far too often? I’m all for an author daydreaming in this fairytale realm that’s already built up, but then have the basis of the fairytale realm and create your own story in there instead, which would’ve kept the feeling (maybe even keep short format) that brings the magic to the story, and have higher chance of telling a good one. Truth is, I’ve read my fair share of queer fairytale retellings where there’s a good romance, but everything else is boring/predictable still (side-eye at Ash by Malinda Lo). I would’ve just cut them out completely, but as with Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, any Riordan series or Circe by Madeline Miller it might be some of my favourite books as well.

Mythological creatures included in stories completely separated from any of the other parts of the mythology. Just to have a ‘cool’ lesser-known creature, without really taking into consideration what makes it cool or unique. Of course, at worst it could be some type of cultural appropriation, but that’s not really what I’m talking about as a ‘pet peeve’.

Including politics, but not really. As in not actually going into the politics or even spending time thinking about how a political system would work in their fictional world. Typical is (what I would call) YA book with princesses or kids of high-level politicians/diplomats, but I’ve also seen non-YA versions of this. “Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuinston did it well in that the author kept its focus on certain topics and didn’t go too heavy into how policies was changed or what their parents did politically, but the limits and system was still set (even if very similiar to present day America) and you saw that in the story. I would’ve still wanted there to be more going into the politics, like I usually do, but it was a choice made rather than an obvious dodge. Like why even write a book around politics if you’re scared to interact with any part of it or do any research??

a bit of a reading slump | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline7 Comments

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

literally none.

Added to TBR:

  • Mona Lisa Smile by Deborah Chiel (dark academia)
  • The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (fantasy, m/m relationship)
  • The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (classic from 1532, politics)
  • The Tradition by Jericho Brown (poetry, lgbt)
  • Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno (YA, magical realism, lgbt)
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (magical realism)
  • Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle (graphic novel)
  • The Once and Future King by T. H. White (fantasy, historical fiction)

Three things on my mind:

  • I’ve been more and more unsure about using goodreads. Like I’ve never used it much as a social media platform, only from time to time, but I have over 1400 books on there and it’s been great to catalogue books, especially as I’ve moved twice, left books behind in one house and used to use the library a lot. I tried out The Story Graph which is marketed as an alternative, even if in beta-version. It’s interesting & fun especially with their recommendations, I would recommend checking it out. But the biggest criteria I have for a similiar book platform is reliability and I don’t think I’m going to find a similiar enough platform that has that, for a while. I used to use a norwegian alternative, way way back, but there’s just so many books and I think that having a big community that adds these in for you is one of the great features that distinguish the different sites. Please let me know if there’s any cool alternatives to goodreads I should check out though!
  • I’m frustrated a lot, recently. My exams back in May was a struggle for multiple reasons that I’m tired of thinking about, but now it seems I might have outright failed one exam as well. This is a bit strange as I’m above the ‘fail’ percentage in most ways they could have marked it, as is a handful of my friends in the same situation, so we’ve all sent in our complaints. The thing I suspect happened is that more than usual got high grades (bc open-textbook exam and possibility to cheat by cooperation), and they changed the criteria for failing based on that without notifying us (which is strange as well). We’ll see when our complaints are processed, I guess. Still, it both gave me a renewed motivation to do better, but at the same time totally wrecked my self-esteem in a way I truly didn’t expect. Of course, a huge part of this is that my health isn’t getting that much better, even though I’ve had plenty of time to relax this summer break. We’ll see I guess.
  • I watched & cried over several movies, for once. I’m back in my home-‘village’ (it’s actually classified as village based on population number), in the house we took over from my late grandparents. And my grandmother was Sami, which has made me particularly interested in finally watching the prize-winning “Sami Blood” (2016) movie. It was as breath-taking and real as I expected, with the main character played by this amazing sami actress Lene Cecilia Sparrok, who really brought all the nuances into the story. It’s set in Sweden and isn’t my grandma’s story, but there’s many similiarities anyway. Being norwegian, I’ve learned of the horrible supression and racist policies put in place against Sami people, but we need movies like this to bring it to the attention to even more people. Let’s never forget the past enough to let it happen again.
  • I also watched the new USA gymnastics documentary; “Athlete A”. It highlighted the many ways Larry Nassar’s abuse was allowed to continue by people in charge, showing a culture at the olympic level with a high degree of various abuse being normalized, and how it all affected his victims. The last part features the more recent, high-profile Maggie Nichols, bringing up the question of if she lost her olympic chance because of reporting him. I wish all the best for her and all the other (there’s so many) victims, and overall it was a great documentary.

Good First Lines of Books

aquapages // eline4 Comments

I want to preface this with how I think first lines don’t have as much to say when picking up a book as the first page, or first couple pages. But I’ve collected some I think are particularly good ones, setting the stage for the rest of the plot. I also just now found out that apparently I like when authors describe silence as something tangible??

“The assassins dropped into the palace grounds at midnight, four fleet shadows dark against the wall. The fall was high, the ground was hard; they made no more sound on impact than the pattering of rain.”

Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud

“It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.”

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

“The night breathed through the apartment like a dark animal.”

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

“How does one describe Artemis Fowl? Various psychiatrists have tried and failed.”

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Carolyn, blood-drenched and barefoot, walked alone down the two-lane stretch of blacktop that the Americans called Highway 78.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

“I am a fighter. To be a fighter, you have to be passionate. I have so much passion, it’s hard to hold it all in. That passion escapes as tears from my eyes, sweat from my pores, blood from my veins. So many people assume that I’m cold and callous, but the truth is you need a big heart to fight. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I have had it broken too. I can compete with broken toes or stitches in my foot. I can take a hit without batting an eyelash, but I will burst into tears if a sad song comes on the radio. I am vulnerable; that’s why I fight.”

My Fight Your Fight by Ronda Rousey

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we understood the gravity of our situation.”

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

To many, I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale. Some considered me a monster, a mutation. To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel. To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost. But I knew the truth—deep down, I always did.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Life is bullshit.

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson  

It’s tempting to leave it at that, but the next couple lines are pretty great too;

Life is bullshit. Consider your life for a moment. Think about all those little rituals that sustain you throughout your day—from the moment you wake up until that last, lonely midnight hour when you guzzle a gallon of NyQuil to drown out the persistent voice in your head. The one that whispers you should give up, give in, that tomorrow won’t be better than today. Think about the absurdity of brushing your teeth, of arguing with your mother over the appropriateness of what you’re wearing to school, of homework, of grade-point averages and boyfriends and hot school lunches. And life. Think about the absurdity of life.

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)

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.

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