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the Zofia Turbotyńska mystery series, written by Maryla Szymiczkowa, currently spans two books translated to english (Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing and Karolina and the Torn Curtain) and five total in the original polish, and follows a bored, nosy social climber as she decides that she can do detective work in mid-1890s kraków after reading some poe.
i've been in a major reading slump for a long time now, and somehow last year i started to read a bunch of nonfiction, which i'd never really gone for before, ever. i also had a realization today while mulling over the histrom i'm about 75% of the way through that i really like the problem-solving more than the romance itself, lol. anyways! words about words.
( misc. nonfiction, mostly fashion )
( those stupid faerie books )it feels good to be reading again! it's been really good to get into reading nonfiction; i'm finding it very easy to pick up and put down rather than getting sucked in like i do with novels or longfic.
reading: haikyuu!!
Feb. 14th, 2021 01:18 pmhaikyuu!! (or, in the official viz transcription, haikyu!!) is a manga series running 402 chapters/45 volumes that focuses on hinata shoyo, a teenager who is inspired to play volleyball after seeing a player on TV who's just as short as he is. this is a criminally oversimplified summary, but i started all these posts with summaries, so here we go.
haikyuu!! is not about volleyball. i would even go so far as to say it's not a sports manga! that's my spicy fucking take, and i will stand by it. haikyuu!! is about learning that it's okay to fail.
here we are again! i finished bleach. like, the whole thing this time. my feelings have not changed much.
would i "recommend" it? i mean... if you have the nostalgia for it already in place, then yeah, revisiting the series up through the end of the winter war (aizen, etc.) arc is totally worth it. if you've never read bleach... maybe don't, unless you're willing to do 686 chapters with, like, no payoff. (except the winter war arc. everything up through there is great.)
(sort of) reading: bleach
Oct. 7th, 2020 07:42 pmmmm, nostalgia. very tasty. tl;dr for this post: i thought about bleach, then i read a fic* on a whim, then i thought about it way too hard, then i read up on canon, re-read some chapters i remembered liking, skimmed the ending, and now i'm big mad about it.
in sum: bleach deserved so much better than it got. good lord.
reading: temeraire
Sep. 5th, 2020 07:24 pmtemeraire is a series of nine novels, written by naomi novik, spanning the alternate-history length of the napoleonic wars in a world where dragons exist.
nine books in one week! that's close to a record for me, i think. which is to say: these books were incredibly enjoyable as a whole, and clearly really lovingly researched. an extremely fun alternate-history adventurous romp.
reading: wolfsong & ravensong
Oct. 27th, 2019 08:41 pm(note: i'm 68% okay i just read like 6 more pages, now i'm 69% (nice) done with ravensong as i write this.)
wolfsong is a paranormal/supernatural romance novel by tj klune, published in 2016, with the sequel ravensong published in 2018 as part of the green creek series. ox matheson is a small-town kid whose life gets turned completely upside down when the bennett family moves (back) in to the house at the end of his lane.
( very minor spoilers from early in the book, but spoiler-free otherwise )
reading: swordspoint
Oct. 19th, 2019 02:32 pmswordspoint is a fantasy novel by ellen kushner, published in 1987. richard st vier is a swordsman in a country where swordsmen are hired by lords to fight in their name as a blend of mercenary, assassin, and showman; he ends up embroiled in a complex web of political maneuvering against his will.
this book felt unusual for the wider fantasy genre in that it's neither "historical" nor is there any magic; i would compare it to the space opera subgenre of sci-fi. all in all, it was a pretty interesting ~queer history~ read.
( no spoilers! )
the lady's guide to celestial mechanics is a historical romance novel by olivia waithe, released june 2019. after her father passes away, lucy muchelney wants to continue the astronomical work she did with (and for) him and answers a call for translation help from the widowed countess of moth, lady catherine st day.
reading: red, white & royal blue
Aug. 10th, 2019 03:02 pmi figured i should start writing about books i read, too, since i've been reading a lot this year!
red, white & royal blue is an adult romance by casey mcquiston, released july 2019. alex claremont-diaz, son of US president ellen claremont, causes an international incident at the british royal wedding by accidentally shoving the younger prince henry into the wedding cake, prompting the US and england to do damage control by making it look like alex and henry have been BFFs all along, rather than icy at best. cue Tropes(tm), cuteness, etc., etc.
i enjoyed it! it was sweet and funny, and the political aspect of it in particular was pretty cool to read; the author did a lot of work to make the alternative-near-history political landscape feel grounded and realistic.
that being said, i have a very odd criticism: it felt like i was reading fanfiction for a property i'm not familiar with.
( spoiler-free! )