[ SECRET POST #6846 ]

Oct. 3rd, 2025 05:28 pm
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⌈ Secret Post #6846 ⌋

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[ SECRET POST #6845 ]

Oct. 2nd, 2025 05:36 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6845 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 08 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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valoise: (Default)
[personal profile] valoise posting in [community profile] booknook
My mother was an excellent baker. Pies and cookies were her specialties, but her cakes and quick breads were also very good. She took the time to teach me and my brothers how to bake. But she absolutely did not make yeast bread. So when I was in high school I plunged into yeast breads as a form of self expression, a way to take what I’d learned from Mom and take it in a new direction. And for a inquisitive hippie girl in the early 1970s I found my bread mentor in this book.

The Tassajarra Bread Book was first published in 1970. It is still in print with the original publisher, Shambhala Press, in 2025. That kind of longevity for any book is rare, but this no ordinary cookbook. At the time he wrote the book Edward Espe Brown was cook at the Tassajarra Zen Mountain Center in Northern California. The book reflects a philosophy of mindfulness. In the short preface he says:

“Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with dough under hand, your are bread making itself, which is why bread making is so fulfilling and rewarding.“

“A recipe doesn’t belong to anyone. Given to me, I give it to you. Only a guide, only a skeletal framework . . .”

Brown starts with an explanation of the ingredients and tools used in bread baking followed by a detailed description of the process accompanied by hand drawn illustrations. The following chapter on yeasted bread provides the framework for creativity. Seventeen variations of the main recipe encourage the baker to move toward self-expression in baking. Try new things. See if they work. Adapt if they don’t.

The book contains chapters on yeasted pastry, sourdough, unyeasted breads, breakfast breast, quick breads, and desserts. It continues to be an excellent introduction to baking for anyone, and a great source of creative inspiration.

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Oct. 2nd, 2025 02:30 am
pauraque: butterfly trailing a rainbow through the sky from the Reading Rainbow TV show opening (butterfly in the sky)
[personal profile] pauraque posting in [community profile] booknook
It's still Wednesday in some time zones!

What are you reading?
blueshiftofdeath: walter white happily holding out a pizza (pleased)
[personal profile] blueshiftofdeath posting in [community profile] booknook

I wanted to start off the Review-A-Thon with one of my favorite books of the year!

Our protagonist, Skye, is recuperating from her latest trip (she owns a travel business and is away most of the year) as usual at her friend's bed and breakfast in Philadelphia, her hometown. She's then found by her childhood friend's daughter, Vicky-- Skye donated her egg to said childhood friend twelve years ago, the friend recently died, Vicky found out about the egg donation and wanted to meet her biological mom. But Skye is a disaster adult, perpetually alone, and seemingly totally unequipped to deal with a grieving child. OR IS SHE? Laughs and love ensue!

I absolutely adored this book. What stands out the most to me was that it was really funny. I laughed aloud at several parts, and when I subsequently let my girlfriend read the passage I was just on, she would laugh too, despite having no or little context. I think the author fits in a bunch of humorous scenarios that are also executed well with effective prose. (Many other would-be-funny books either only have funny turns of phrase, rather than funny scenarios, or funny scenarios that don't come off very funny due to how they're written.) I don't often have a good laugh when I read these days, so being so amused almost the whole time I read this was a very pleasant surprise.

Second most noteworthy element of the book to me was how real the world and characters felt. Even characters that only had a few lines were rendered in such a way that I could totally imagine seeing them in real life. I think it's unusual to have an author so effective in sketching such vivid character portraits with just a few words. This makes her similarly effective in conveying highly nuanced relationships and situations without needing to spell them out, since you can quickly grasp what each character is thinking and why they'd feel that way.

Third most noteworthy would be the sense of place. The entire book takes place near the protagonist's (and the author's) hometown of Philadelphia, and the love of Philadelphia really floods the pages, in a good way. And it ties in really well with the book's concept and message.

And lastly I have to say that it was a huge plus that the story majorly centers black queer women and their relationships which was such a breath of fresh air. Even though most books I read have non-white characters now, it often feels tokenistic; white American cultural expectations are typically still assumed as the default. Ditto for queer representation; in other books, it often feels like the author is just going down the list checking off boxes of identities to include. Not so for Skye Falling! It feels like a picture of actual life for a gay person who just naturally has a lot of queer people in their circle.

Overall, it felt that every part of this book was doing something: either it was being funny, or it gave you an important cue about the characters, or it conveyed some important element of the overarching themes. As a result I found it very engaging and an incredibly quick read.

There were a lot of elements to this book that often go over poorly for me, but I thought were executed perfectly in Skye Falling:

  • Skye is very unlikable in a lot of ways. I tend to find it hard to read books with protagonists like her, but because of her strong narrative voice, you can't help but root for Skye in spite of all her frustrating qualities. The author also makes it easy to get in her head and understand why she acts the way she does.
  • The narrative style is very modern, with Skye thinking in the first person in a very casual way. I often like this in books, but just as often it feels kind forced and annoying to read. I'm sure some people still wouldn't like it in Skye Falling, but I felt it was done in a very natural and easy to read way, and I actually really loved it.
  • There's a sorta-side romance between Skye and another character; I often find romances in non-romance books to be distracting and shoehorned in, but it fit so naturally in Skye Falling and made it such a stronger book. There's layers!!
  • There's pretty direct political discourse as voiced by the protagonist. I find that books that try to do this are often clumsy about it, and it either comes off painfully simplistic, unnatural, or uninterestingly written. In Skye Falling, there's a perfect resonance between Skye's personal issues and the story's political backdrop, so you can extrapolate ideas from the relationships-based plotline into real-life politics, or read into Skye's character and relationships using the political issues alluded to in the story.
  • Related to the above, politically loaded books that are written well can be hard to read on an emotional level. Although the political and social issues touched on in the story are serious (police brutality, homophobia, transphobia, child abuse, parental death, gentrification), I would characterize it as primarily cathartic and uplifting.

My only real complaint about the book is that I thought the title and cover were terrible choices for the story. I don't think they fit the vibe at all. Maybe there'll be editions with a different cover at least in the future!

In conclusion: Skye Falling was a tightly written work with a simple but effective story that managed to include a surprising amount of nuance between the lines. Highlights are the humor, characters, and sense of place. Representation is a huge plus. Check it out!

[ SECRET POST #6844 ]

Oct. 1st, 2025 05:46 pm
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⌈ Secret Post #6844 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 17 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
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[ SECRET POST #6843 ]

Sep. 30th, 2025 06:04 pm
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⌈ Secret Post #6843 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
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Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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[ SECRET POST #6842 ]

Sep. 29th, 2025 05:52 pm
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⌈ Secret Post #6842 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 33 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
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rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Artist: Fred Fordham
Genre: Fantasy, adventure, graphic novel

In case I haven't worn you all out nattering about Earthsea yet, here's some more. On Friday when I finished the Cycle I went online, as one does, and discovered that last year there was published a graphic novel edition of A Wizard of Earthsea, the first book in the series. So naturally this weekend I had to run out and buy it and read it all at once. The art was done by Fred Fordham and the project was overseen by Le Guin's son, Theo (she having passed away in 2018). 

Theo, like Le Guin herself, was trepidatious about any visual representation of Earthsea, after decades of white character designs; white, middle-aged actors; and general tom-fuckery when it comes to representing Le Guin's work. It wasn't until Theo saw Fordham's work in To Kill a Mockingbird that he first considered it might be worthwhile to consider a graphic novel adaptation of his mother's work, and so here we are.

Fordham appears to have been the right man for the job--this graphic novel edition of A Wizard of Earthsea captures the characters as Le Guin may have envisioned them when she wrote. Theo in his forward acknowledges that one of the beautiful things about how the characters are described in Le Guin's work--enough to give an idea of their appearance, but also vague enough that readers can all use their own imaginations to some degree--becomes limited when creating an "official" visual representation of those characters. So he considers Fordham's designs just one of many possible looks for these characters, but one that cleaves to his mother's original descriptions. 

His expressions neatly capture the shift in Ged's attitude over his schooling at Roke, from the proud, angry boy who first arrives to the sobered, haunted young man who departs.

Nearly all of the wording in the book is lifted directly from the original novel, which means Le Guin's original hard-hitting dialogue and beautiful descriptions of Earthsea survive to accompany Fordham's gorgeous scenic illustrations. He really captures the moody atmosphere of some of the book's darker moments, while also creating some truly stunning vistas of the ocean, which of course is a considerable part of the world for the characters of Earthsea (who live in an archipelago). I particularly enjoyed some of the rainy scenes--felt just like home here in the PNW!

He also does a great job making Ged and the Lookfar feel small on some of Ged's journeys. Looking at it some of these full-page spreads, you really feel that Ged is just one young wizard on his own in a vast and unknowable world. 

If I had any issues, it's only that some of the palettes run quite dark, so that a few panels can be almost impossible to distinguish unless you're looking at the book directly under a light source, and that there is some occasional visual awkwardness (not sure how to describe this--maybe Fordham used a 3D rendering tool and it shows?)

Overall, I was delighted with this, and I really hope Fordham and Theo press on to do Tombs of Atuan as well--I would love to see Tenar and Atuan rendered as well!

[ SECRET POST #6841 ]

Sep. 28th, 2025 02:01 pm
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⌈ Secret Post #6841 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 41 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
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[ SECRET POST #6840 ]

Sep. 27th, 2025 02:36 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6840 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 50 secrets from Secret Submission Post #977.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - secrets made from copy pasting other people's random FS comments? There's probably more I don't recognize in this week ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #978 ]

Sep. 27th, 2025 02:28 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets
[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #978 ]




The first secret from this batch will be posted on October 4th.



RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: The Other Wind (and sundry short stories)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: Fantasy, adventure

That's a wrap, folks! Today I concluded the entirety of the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula Le Guin for the first time. The final book in this series is The Other Wind, but the collected volume I have also includes after that a few short stories by Le Guin set in the Earthsea universe as well as a lecture she gave at Oxford on gender and the Western archtype of a hero. Seemed best to lump these all together for this review.

I was emotional about this book from the start, and I can only imagine it was moreso for those who had been familiar with Ged and Tenar for decades before this book was published. The Earthsea Cycle begins with A Wizard of Earthsea in Ged's childhood, before he's even discovered his propensity for magic, and here at the start of The Other Wind, he is a man in his seventies, puttering about his old master's house and waiting for his wife and daughter to come home. We've gotten to see Ged throughout his life--as a child, apprentice, wizard, archmage, goatherd (take 2), old man--and this continuity and journey really got to me.

At the end of the previous novel, Tehanu, the mantle of hero is passed on narratively from Ged and Tenar to their adopted daughter, Tehanu, but it's here in The Other Wind that Tehanu really comes into herself. Given Tehanu's past trauma, the way she clings to Tenar and Ged makes sense, so it was very rewarding to see her grow into herself here and eventually claim the power she was told by the dragon Kalessin she possesses at the end of Tehanu

As with Tehanu and Tales of Earthsea, women play a much more central role in The Other Wind. Our noble king, Lebannen, who came into his own in the third book of the original trilogy, is really blown hither-and-thither by the women of the book, who are the real plot-movers. Tehanu, the youthful rising power; Tenar, the wizened heroine; Irian, the free woman who's embraced the power Tehanu shares; Seserakh, the foreign princess who brings Kargish knowledge of dragons; these are the real players of the game. The kings and wizards who follow in their wake exist to help them carry out the plot. 

As with all the Earthsea books, Le Guin focuses her fantasy without centering violence. The great plot of The Other Wind essentially boils down to righting an ancient wrong, and it is resolved through shared knowledge and cooperation. On the whole, the book feels quite positive and we leave Earthsea for this final time on a sweet and hopeful note.

The conclusion itself feels perfect: Ged and Tenar on Gont, talking of nothing, in the end. Who else but Le Guin would have concluded her epic fantasy series with her male hero explaining how he'd kept up the house in his wife's absence? The pair go for a walk in the woods, and that's where the overarching plot of Earthsea ends, beautiful in its simplicity. 

If I had a complaint about Le Guin's writing, it's that she sometimes stows key elements of the plot in opaque dialogue between characters, which comes up a little here, but not as much as in Tehanu.

After The Other Wind come a few short stories by Le Guin set in the world of Earthsea. These are fun little tales, none longer than fifteen pages, which have nothing to do with any of the characters we know, until the final one. If you like the worldbuilding of Earthsea, these will be a great addition. The final one, for reasons I won't spoil, had me getting choked up even though I suspect from the opening paragraphs what was happening. 

I had such fun exploring Earthsea and while I wish I had gotten into them when I was younger (because I know how much I would have enjoyed them as a teen!) I'm still glad to have found them now (and I can just envision the daydreams I would have spun about my own female mage OC if I had known about these books then...) I know I'll revisit Earthsea and the adventures of its heroes again, although I'll stick to the paper versions--I've heard nothing good about any of the attempted screen adaptations! It truly feels like this has been a journey, and what an enjoyable one its been.

[ SECRET POST #6839 ]

Sep. 26th, 2025 04:55 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6839 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Book review: Road to Ruin

Sep. 25th, 2025 04:19 pm
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier duology #1)
Author: Hana Lee
Genre: Fiction, fantasy, dystopia, post-apocalyptic 

I have a job again! \^o^/ This means I am back on the audiobook train and today I wrapped up Road to Ruin by Hana Lee, book 1 of the Magebike Courier duology. This is a low fantasy dystopian novel located in a place called the Mana Wastes, where protagonist Jin works as a courier transporting goods between protected cities. Jin runs a lot of odd jobs for various clients, but her most lucrative by far are Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen. Jin has been ferrying love letters between them for three years--while hiding the fact that she's fallen in love with both of them. But everything changes when Yi-Nereen decides to run away and asks Jin to help her.

First, don't let the hokey title put you off. I started this one a bit warily, but it turned out to be quite a lot of fun! The worldbuilding is pretty light, but the novel seems aware of that and doesn't overpromise on that front. What is there serves its purpose well. It's not anything particularly novel, but not every book needs to be.

Jin, Yi-Nereen, and Kadrin are all wonderful protagonists; each of them has a distinct personality, perspective, and motivations, and I really enjoyed all of them. I was rooting for them the whole book and it was great to watch their various interpersonal dynamics unfold. If you're a fan of stories about mutual pining, this one is definitely worth checking out. However, if that's not really your speed, I didn't feel like the book spent too much time harping on about feelings we all suspect or know are requited. The romance element is definitely there, and it's a significant motivator for all three of them, but there's plenty else going on in the book too. 

The book avoids falling prey either to the Charybdis of black-and-white morality where everyone who stands in the way of the protagonists is evil, or to the Scylla of "everyone is friends if we just talk things out," which is a relief after some recent reads. There's definitely a sliding scale of antagonism here, with some characters who are obstacles but not necessarily bad people, and others who run much darker. 

I also enjoyed the presence of the "Road Builders." Jin and her peers inhabit the Mana Wastes, a treacherous desert wasteland where little survives and almost none of it without human intervention. They sustain themselves with "talent"--magical abilities common among humans, but becoming less common by the day--and travel along ravaged roads built by some culture who came before, about which Jin and her peers know very little. These are the "Road Builders" and are, I believe, strongly hinted at to be us. Lee keeps them a pleasant mystery humming in the background of everything else going on.

There were a couple contrivances near the end to aid a dramatic conclusion, but nothing so egregious I wasn't willing to continue to play ball with the book. Similarly, I'm on the fence about where this book leaves the relationship between the main trio, because it feels a little too much like Lee felt it was a necessary hook into book 2, but I'll reserve judgement until I've actually read book 2. And perhaps it's better that everything doesn't wrap up too neatly here. 

On the whole, I had a lot of fun with this book and I will definitely read the next one.

[ SECRET POST #6838 ]

Sep. 25th, 2025 05:46 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6838 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET POST #6837 ]

Sep. 24th, 2025 06:26 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6837 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 20 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
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Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Sep. 24th, 2025 03:19 pm
phantomtomato: (Edmund)
[personal profile] phantomtomato posting in [community profile] booknook
What are you reading this week? Are you planning your October reading yet?

[ SECRET POST #6836 ]

Sep. 23rd, 2025 06:24 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6836 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 29 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET POST #6835 ]

Sep. 22nd, 2025 06:33 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6835 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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