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#URC2023
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Faranae
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Alright, it's November, so it looks like only half my #URC2023 is going to be queer romance. Meanwhile, I went back to my past unassigned reads and found 4 books that fit prompts - the one not included here is The Story of My Life by Helen Keller for a blind author.

I'll actually be reading Lady Susan a second time later this month for my read-along Twitch stream.

willaful I've never actually read Lady Susan, IIRC.

I'm annoyed at myself because I had a queer romance for the rescue prompt, with a paramedic, but the second LI is a cop. D'oh.
5mo
Faranae @willaful Oh the “no cops“ rule is just that cops don't count as rescue personnel for the prompt, not that they can't appear at all.

And most people skip Lady Susan. It's one of her juvenilia that she never reworked and wasn't published until decades after she died. It's delightful but it's not something you can mine for social commentary and older Austen was a tad more conservative in her morals than this book.
5mo
willaful Yeah, I never got much into her juvenalia.

Thanks for the allow! One less prompt to worry about. But you will absolutely *hate* the book.
5mo
Faranae @willaful 😂 glad to know I will have good fodder for the blog next year then! 5mo
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willaful
Word Bingo | Donn Byrne
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Trying to finish up @Faranae 's Ultimate Reading Challenge by the end of the year. Again, suggestions for the prompts are much appreciated!

#BookSpinBingo

Faranae I need to read something for the #URC2023 so the remaining prompts will fit on a bingo card. I should probably abandon my queer romance only mission, though, haha. 5mo
willaful Well, if you have any you used for any of these, lemme know! 5mo
Faranae For polyamory, there's Unhallowed (Jordan L Hawk), or Band Sinister (KJ Charles).

I cheated on fermentation and used The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting (KJC).

For sea shanty, Hold Fast (Sebastian Nothwell) has one I think.

Trade unions I was a little cheaty and used A Seditious Affair (KJC).

Transportation? Wanted, A Gentleman (KJC) largely takes place on the mail coach roads! The obvious one would be One Last Stop (Casey McQuiston).
5mo
willaful I've actually already read all those, except the Hawk and Nothwell. But I really don't know how to find a sea shanty book, so I hope you're right about that! 5mo
Faranae I figured you had. You're usually *my* source of new queer romance to read, not the other way round. XD

I do have a lot of Hawk's back catalog to get through yet, but I did rather shoot myself in the foot early this year when I put all of the Hex World books into the #FRC2023 as a joke,
5mo
8 likes5 comments
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Faranae
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These are the prompts I have remaining for my own #URC2023 and I'm slightly annoyed that this late in the year, I still have too many to make a little bingo card out of them.

I do have a few dozen books that I haven't applied to prompts yet - children's books and the like, which I'm saving for the December panic. The tagged book is one I can't find a prompt for. I read a lot of those, too, this year.

Now if all of these could be queer romance...

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Faranae
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Pickpick

For the #URC2023 I am committing crimes against my own prompts and decided that a book with a how-to book *title* was close enough. Luke is just as much of a little shit as I expected and it was fun to watch him fuck around and find out. Joss and Gareth get more than just a cameo, so we get to see their HEA more than a decade on from the first book, a rare treat.

Faranae I wanted to tag on some historical notes: the average laborer or tradesman made about 40 to 50 pounds a year. Someone of Luke's class would get the salary he commands of Rufus after 15 or more years of service, though he's not asking for something entirely out of line.

Because there was no trained secretary at Stone, most of the recent documents are probably in Secretary Hand. Luke likely uses a variant of Copperplate for Rufus.
5mo
3 likes1 comment
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Faranae
A Rake Of His Own | Aj Lancaster
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I already posted about this book for another litsy thingy, but it was also my only #URC2023 read for September, at least by my current tracking. I considered counting Unfit to Print for the Black joy prompt, but I'd prefer to find a book by a Black author for that.

Rake (book) is alright as a standalone bit of fun, though it's a shoddy mystery plot that serves as a threadbare excuse to put two frenemies together.

willaful I've been trained by the #FallInLove etc. romance bingo boards that always have a “black love“ square -- it has to have black main characters and be by a black author to count. 6mo
2 likes1 comment
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Faranae
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For #URC2023 July, I only managed to fit one book into the remaining prompts. Admittedly, it's a good book, and since the cuddling is a major element of the pining and romantic plot (lolplot), it was fun to add it to the “A book involving cuddling“ prompt. I have books that could fit my prompts if I weren't being silly and trying to find almost exclusively queer romance, so I'm not panicking yet! Plus, I have a lot of Jordan L Hawk to read still!

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Faranae
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For June's #URC2023 I only managed to read one book. I'm going to start panicking soon, especially if I keep on with my little challenge mode to sweep most of it with queer romance. Every book so far is m/m romance, except An Unsuitable Heir, which is nb/m. A Seditious Affair got me to re-read William Blake, although I sadly don't have a complete works or physical copies of any of the Romantics. 😭

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Faranae
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Pickpick

This one for the #URC2023 is a bit of a stretch since it has more to do with foundations of modern anarchist philosophy than specifically trade unionism. Still, reading about the Regency unrest resulted in me reading Byron's pro-Luddite speech against the Frame Bill, which I highly recommend. I do have a complaint about the cover, as I have no idea who that man is - both MCs are going grey, this bloke is far too young.

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Faranae
An Unsuitable Heir | KJ Charles
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Just two books for the #URC2023 during May, both KJ Charles books. I was hoping to also finish A Seditious Affair, but didn't manage it before the end of the month. I made the mistake of looking at reviews for An Unsuitable Heir before reading it, and good gods the amount of latent transphobia from people who think they are “allies“. I felt like punching people. KJC handled Pen and Mark wonderfully, and I appreciate the “modern“ approach here.

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Faranae
Rattling Bone | Jordan L. Hawk
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April for the #URC2023 added 8 romance novels. Eventually I'll have to do at least one book that isn't a romance novel, as I don't think the Hurston goes to romance ever. I tagged Jordan L Hawk's newest book since I thought it was great and I couldn't review it for Octocon (there's an on-page sex scene, though not as explicit as his other books). I'm going to run out of books by this set of authors, though, so suggestions welcome!

willaful Awww, boo on the Hurston then.

Have you read Everina Maxwell?
(edited) 11mo
Faranae @willaful To be fair to the Hurston, they do at least nominate and sometimes award SFF, which is more than most serious literary awards are willing to do.

I have not read Maxwell, I think I possibly have Winter's Orbit on my TBR?
11mo
willaful I liked both a lot but you could skip to the second. It's meatier. 11mo
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