collection of robin sketches while i was figuring out how to draw him
can i be real i didnt like being called stupid out of nowhere it’s made me sad and frustrated. anon can you come back and show me a cool trick like a back handspring or some crisp tameshiwari. i don’t like balloon animals so not that.
It's wild how "women are reading frivolous and immoral novels that are rotting their brains" is such an evergreen moral panic. You'd think we'd have figured this one out by now.
Not the gay allegations 😭😭 damn she's only been back in bingtown for a few weeks can yall let her breathe 😭
After constant.. endless.. recommendation, I finally read book 1 of The Raven Cycle. It arrived on Sunday, I finished it on Monday. To say that I am obsessed would be an understatement.
None of the bookstores near me sell the next three; I had to order them online. So now have to wait another month for them to arrive. One more month..
No joke, go read The Open Veins of Latin America before even trying to send me a political ask. Mandatory reading.
It's a cliché that every Latin American leftist has read it and quotes it, but that's because it's written in such a clear language with undeniable strenght on its facts. It presents the history of Latin America solidly just in the first few pages, and it only gets more engrossing the more it goes on. While it is now a bit outdated in the sense that it was first published in 1971, the historical, social and political issues presented are -in an unfortunate way- still current. It is a relatively short book, passionate and in a clear, poetic language.
Sometimes it's good to return to the basics, and this is THE basic book if you want to understand the effects of imperialism in Latin America, and our struggle for freedom and identity.
Instead of losing your time with half baked twitteroid takes, go read it. Here you go, for free, in Spanish, Portuguese and English:
https://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/r31206.pdf
https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America.pdf
Read the rest of the article here
🧍book ask. 2 + 6 + 20 :^)
2. top 5 books of all time
ok i’m going with non-childrens lit novels 🤨 so
the tombs of atuan (ursula leguin)
annihilation (jeff vandermeer)
east of eden (john steinbeck)
royal assassin (robin hobb)
parable of the sower (octavia butler)
6. read this month
the golden compass (philip pullman)
powers (ursula leguin)
20. what i look for in a book
for getting into a book, i want “disappearing” prose that doesn’t distract me from the scene with unnatural rhythm or silly word choice, dialogue that’s either naturalist or theatrical but NOT forced to set up stupid lil quips, place descriptions that take me away, a feeling of promise that smth will happen.
for remembering & loving it after i’m done reading—a striking turn & sudden illumination towards the end of the book about what it all meant (even if the answer is “nothing” or “we don’t get to know”), a main character who got to be selfish, magnetic, and cunning, a world that felt wider & deeper than what was seen in this story, an ending that satisfied. doesn’t have to be uplifting or unpredictable as long as i hear the door click shut behind me on my way out yk.
on some more gentle book criticism it's wild that both of wu zetian's love interests in iron widow are highly educated & there are references to the aesthetics and structures of a scholar system, but there is utterly no casual reciting of classics, tactics, nor poetry from anyone. there are references to adapted forms of the classics, but it doesn't inform how characters talk or think (li shimin seems more like a guy who never got education than someone who memorizes poems to the point it destroyed his vision). I understand the whole "peasant frontier girl half literate" thing to an extent (even though it feels an odd choice) but there aren't even like idioms really. it feels very simplistic & uniform in characters' speaking style, and the world, language, and culture all read very flat because of that. tacticians like sima yi, an lushan, and zhuge liang too might have a more creative way to call someone a bitch or what is the point of reimagining them in this world is all I'm saying.
i think there was also a big miss of not even referencing half of the incredibly funny things that a star studded historical fiction cast could provide like zhuge liang never did something funny with a feather fan? no one had to bother him into working? no pranks with corpses? where is his ugly intelligent wife?
why not posture that an lushan's son gave the thumbs up on his murder? historically accurate and hilarious