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Clare-Dragonfly

Clare-Dragonfly

Joined September 2016

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Clare-Dragonfly
The Okay Witch | Emma Steinkellner
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Relatable! 😂

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They Called Us Enemy | George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott
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Also, I wondered why I‘d never seen the episode of The Twilight Zone that Takei is in. I guess this is why—it was barred from syndication!

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They Called Us Enemy | George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott
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Pickpick

This is a beautifully told story of a horrible time in American history—and more importantly, the trauma that George Takei and his family experience in the internment camps, and how George uses that experience in his adult life. The ending made me cry, as I miss my dad too. I did think the framing devices with George giving talks were awkward, especially since there were two and they weren‘t used in a symmetrical way.

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They Called Us Enemy | George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott
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My mom‘s name is Nancy 😄

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Pickpick

At one (of many) points when I laughed at this book, my husband said “uh-oh, you‘ve just read something either really funny or really relatable.” I read him the panel where Lucy runs out of a restaurant crying, having learned that they are not serving lunch. He proceeded to tell the story of the time we failed to get vegan donuts while I was pregnant, and I cried the whole way home. Needless to say, I found this book very relatable and well done!

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My kid was having fun in the play area, so I took some time to wander the graphic novel section. I picked up a couple of books that I‘d been wanting to read and one I‘d never heard of. #libraryhaul

Kenyazero Great pics! Your kiddo thought they were getting the better deal getting to stay while you browsed, but here you are. The winner. 4d
22 likes1 comment
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Pickpick

I discovered Mhara Starling during my brief foray into TikTok. She‘s a delightful resource on Wales and witchcraft, especially since I‘ve always been interested in the mythology and folklore of Wales. This book is more of the same—more detail in some places than in her social media. I especially liked the deeper explanations of Welsh folklore. However, it badly—desperately—needed an editor. I am extremely disappointed in the publisher, Llewellyn.

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May was a great reading month and I finally did get a #bookspinbingo!

TheSpineView Great job! 6d
19 likes1 comment
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Mehso-so

The whole “narrowly focused on the emotional lives of a few protagonists, plot is irrelevant” thing worked for me in Wilder Girls as YA horror and in Burn Our Bodies Down as YA horror in which the emotions actually cause the plot. It doesn‘t work so well in this duology, which has four theoretically adult (but emotionally very young) protagonists and opens a LOT of interesting magic-system and world-politics plot loops… and closes very few of them

Clare-Dragonfly The characters‘ emotional arcs are beautifully and wrenchingly drawn; I was fully sucked into (and infuriated by) the Argyros siblings‘ belief that they all thought the same way while being unable to see past their own damn noses to understand the others‘ points of view, and what happened to each of them was fitting and satisfying. But I wanted answers to the plot questions, too! (edited) 1w
15 likes1 comment
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This was just as lovely as the previous two books. This series is so heartwarming, despite the fact that this book started with thousands of deaths! I loved that the Exodan society‘s way of disposing of their dead was human composting! Magrat was curious about this book (or maybe just about the ice cream I was eating as I finished it). My #bookspin for May @TheAromaofBooks

RaeLovesToRead Oh my Gosh, Margrat is SO ADORABLEEEE!!!!! 😍 2w
dabbe Hello, Marvelous Magrat! 🩵🐾🤍 2w
ravenlee Hi cutie! 😻 2w
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 2w
27 likes5 comments
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Echo After Echo | Amy Rose Capetta
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I didn‘t enjoy this as much as The Lost Coast or The Heartbreak Bakery for a variety of reasons (no real magic, the ending felt incomplete, a couple small instances of my pet peeve) but it was still wonderful. There‘s a murder mystery, a queer romance, a grand old theater, an abusive director, a Greek tragedy that isn‘t real but sure feels like it could be. Capetta‘s writing and the characters consistently suck me in.

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Pickpick

I can‘t blame you, Phoebe! I would want to be kidnapped by goblins, too.

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Phoebe is definitely her own character. But sometimes, if you replace Phoebe with an anthropomorphic fox and Dakota with an anthropomorphic sheep, this could absolutely be an Ozy & Millie strip.

This volume was even more delightful than the first; I relate easily to Phoebe‘s parents! I laughed out loud several times and had to share a few strips with my husband. Surprisingly, my five-year-old doesn‘t seem to be interested.

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I don‘t know whether Dana Simpson is making specific callbacks to Ozy & Millie (I seem to recall Millie eating Sugar Kabooms) or if it‘s just that her style, especially for this similar-aged-and-imaginative character, is the same, but either way I‘m here for it! Also see: Dakota saying “guh” 😂

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Finally reading the Phoebe and her Unicorn comics. I just thought I‘d be enjoying some fun, silly comics—I didn‘t expect an introduction from the greatest of unicorn novelists himself! 😍

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Circe | Madeline Miller
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I found this to be a somewhat slow but beautiful book, with a fascinating character at its center. Circe is less badass than I had expected her to be… but maybe that‘s just because I could read her thoughts and knew how she felt about her actions. All of the characters in this book feel very real, even the great gods and heroes. That doesn‘t mean they‘re good, nice, or human—but they are real.

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Bailedbailed

I really liked the idea of a historical romance between a Black spy masquerading as a slave and a white spy masquerading as a Confederate soldier. Alyssa Cole‘s writing is good. It‘s just too much lust and not enough spycraft for me. This is a type of romance that just doesn‘t work for me: I want the characters to gradually get to know each other and have their interest increase, not fall in immediate lust and act like they hate each other.

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Circe | Madeline Miller
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“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment‘s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

Featuring a peony from my garden 😁

Sparklemn Beautiful! 4w
32 likes1 comment
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This final installment started a little slow, but that made sense and anyway the trilogy definitely avoided the second-book slump, so I can forgive it 😆 I really enjoyed the massive expansion of the magical world, with El jetting all over the world and meeting lots of new wizards… and terrifying them. I had a suspicion pretty early on of the big reveal, and was partially correct, which is always satisfying.

#doublespin for May @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks I own all of these. I read the first one before the other two came out and LOVED It and decided to wait and read them all together... but still haven't done it!!! 1mo
Clare-Dragonfly @TheAromaofBooks Put them on your #bookspin list!!! 😁 1mo
17 likes2 comments
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Oops, I meant to post this a while ago! My April #bookspinbingo board. No bingo of course but I MIGHT be able to manage one in May?! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

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Cranford | Elizabeth Gaskell
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“In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears…”

A very promising beginning, though I doubt this is going in the direction my imagination went 😂 #pemberlittens #hashtagbrigade

TheBookHippie 😅😂 1mo
Ruthiella Not that kind of book! 😂 1mo
23 likes2 comments
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BookSpinBingo | Untitled
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Here is my #bookspin list for May! I‘m pretty sure it‘s the same list as in April but I made a new graphic 😂

ravenlee I…am not fully functional yet this morning, because I thought #8 was “a little board book.” 1mo
Clare-Dragonfly @ravenlee That would be easy to fill. I read one or two of those every night! If my board was all “little board book,” “big board book,” and “Oscar book,” I‘d get a blackout every month 😂 1mo
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Circe | Madeline Miller
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Good way to start a rainy Sunday! (Okay, so it‘s noon…)

ravenlee Sundays would be better if they always started at noon. Actually, most days would be improved this way. 1mo
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ORION

I love how Novik keeps up a rollicking pace and manages to make me care so deeply about these characters while also feeding me a huge amount of information about the world and keeping them very realistic teenagers. Amazingly realistic considering El is a budding supervillain and Orion is pretty much a superhero!

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WTF, does Llewellyn just not hire copy editors?

ravenlee Does he critique grammar and spelling in kids‘ letters? 1mo
Clare-Dragonfly @ravenlee Maybe their organization 😂 1mo
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Agnes Grey | Anne Brontë
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I enjoyed reading this one with the #pemberlittens #hashtagbrigade! Not sure I would have liked it nearly as much otherwise 😂 Agnes is a sweet, relatably awkward character, but the whole book is full of awful people and dropped threads. I‘m glad she gets her happy ending!

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This book is a lot of fun! I wish I‘d been able to read it more slowly since it did feel repetitive, but it‘s hard not to love the irrepressible Mame. Warning: there‘s a lot of racism in this book. It‘s mostly played for laughs, which seems odd, but it‘s clear that the explicitly racist characters are uneducated or unsympathetic. There is also a lot of Mame using her wealth for good.

Lynnsoprano I read that years ago—and saw Angela Lansbury as Mame on Broadway. Funny as all get out, but it is definitely a product of its time. 2mo
ravenlee I‘ve always meant to read this, as the movie is one of my favorites. Thanks for the reminder! 2mo
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No surprise, I loved this! El is a great narrator due to her inner conflicts and the amusing dichotomy of her ability to read rich subtext into anything about the school while entirely missing more interpersonal stuff. The setting is a great deal of bloody, exciting fun. Though I really don‘t know how anyone learns anything at this school! Glad I was able to get the sequel right away.

My April #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks I really enjoyed this one, but read it before the other two books were out. Now I have all three but still haven't gotten around to reading them!!! 2mo
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Ooh… Orion is autistic, isn‘t he? Needing flash cards to learn the other kids‘ names, and fixated on killing mals. The other kids probably treated him like a weirdo right up until they started hero-worshiping him. No wonder he didn‘t want to be their friend.

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It‘s been previously established that Patrick can draw down about $8,000 a year in interest from his inheritance. I think he‘s being a little modest 😂

Edit: On reading a bit more of this chapter, I think it‘s 1944, but that still comes to well over $100k!

Ruthiella I‘d take $8k a year NOW. 😂 Not enough to live on but still a pretty penny. 2mo
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Look how old this #interlibraryloan book is 😍

And yes… I sniffed it and it smells just as good as you‘d expect!

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Bloodmarked | Tracy Deonn
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OMG, that ending! I never saw that coming!

Also, I have never hoped so hard for a love triangle to be resolved with polyamory 😂

BrittanyReads Hahaha I love your review 2mo
Clare-Dragonfly @BrittanyReads Thank you 😆 2mo
CBee I just finished this and 100% agree about the love triangle 🙌🏻🙌🏻😂😂 1mo
24 likes3 comments
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Ayesha at Last | Uzma Jalaluddin
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Bailedbailed

I can‘t deal with this stupid mistaken identity thing any longer. Are any of the characters other than Ayesha, Khalid, and Clara more than cartoons? 🙄

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Ayesha at Last | Uzma Jalaluddin
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Mmm, yes, I do dream of larger women in lingerie… oh wait, that‘s not what Sheila meant. #bisexual 💙💜💖

IndoorDame 👏👏👏👏 2mo
LitStephanie 🤣🤣 Sheila would probably try to fire you, too. What a monster she is! 2mo
Clare-Dragonfly @LitStephanie Yeah, I definitely wouldn‘t fit in by her definition! Unless I‘m the CEO… 🙄 2mo
LitStephanie @Clare-Dragonfly oh yeah, she is such a two-faced brown-noser. 2mo
Bluebird 😂😂😂. 2mo
22 likes5 comments
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Ayesha at Last | Uzma Jalaluddin
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Time for some #pemberlittens reading!

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Shades of Milk and Honey | Mary Robinette Kowal
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Mehso-so

I‘ve now read four books by Mary Robinette Kowal: I adored two, and found the other two interesting in concept, well-written but lacking. The ones I loved are standalones 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was a romance set in an interesting Regency England with magic. I wasn‘t compelled by any of the characters and found Jane‘s sister especially annoying, plus the central drama hit too close to home and gave me anxiety. The romance, though, is quite satisfying.

Clare-Dragonfly This was my March #doublespin and means I‘m caught up! Just in time 😆 @TheAromaofBooks 2mo
TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 2mo
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BookSpinBingo | Untitled
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Here is my #bookspin list for April! @TheAromaofBooks

3/31: Edited to remove Mary Robinette Kowal and move others up the list accordingly.

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 2mo
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The Shattering | Karen Healey
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Mehso-so

The beginning of this book had me really excited. I could see all the twists and the things that the characters would discover. And then… they pretty much all happened by halfway through, and then the rest of the book is pretty straightforward. The characters seem to be mostly right about everything, so I kept bracing for twists that didn‘t come. My #bookspin for March @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 2mo
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Now this is what I was looking for in a polyamory book! Very relatable, interesting, and informative.

I do wish I‘d read this in paper instead of ebook. There are sections in a different font that was very pale and difficult to read on my Kindle, plus the vocabulary words didn‘t always link back and forth—it would have been easier to flip pages.

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The Shadow of the Wind | Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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My latest #littlefreelibrary find! This has been on my list for ages!

AlaMich I have three copies of this: a hardcover, a Drop Caps edition, and a Spanish edition on my Kindle. Unsurprisingly, I have not read any of them. 😂 (edited) 2mo
Clare-Dragonfly @AlaMich Oh dear 😂 I only have multiple copies of one book… I think… but I haven‘t read it yet either! 2mo
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A Marvellous Light | Freya Marske
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A delightful fantasy romance! I really enjoyed the Edwardian Britain setting and the magical world Marske built alongside the ordinary one. It definitely had shades of Harry Potter while being its own thing. The characters are all wonderful—the Morrissey sisters, of course, were my favorites. The romance was developed well while showing the very different people Edwin and Robin are. And oh, boy, does Marske have a way with a Chekhov‘s gun!

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Beheld | TaraShea Nesbit
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Bailedbailed

I‘m just not having the greatest time with @MoonWitch94‘s #AuldLangSpine list! Northanger Abbey is on it so maybe I‘ll reread that next—I certainly know I‘ll enjoy it 😁

Did this feel queer-bait-y to anyone else? With Abigail staring at Eleanor‘s bosom and the constant refrain that Dorothy was her “dearest consort”… but from the reviews I could find it doesn‘t go in a sapphic direction.

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This book is a beautiful, heartbreaking take on the selkie legend—though in some ways not as heartbreaking as the originals. I pitied Misskaella, the witch who brings up all the seal-wives for the men, but couldn‘t fully agree with the way she takes her revenge; how could she not see the seals as deserving their own choices? I liked the variety of POVs but was disappointed in the end that the “sea hearts” they gather and eat were unexplained.

Clare-Dragonfly This was February‘s #bookspin I believe @TheAromaofBooks (edited) 3mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3mo
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Station Eleven: A novel | Emily St. John Mandel
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What a marvelous book! I‘m only sorry it took so long for me to get around to reading it. It has everything I want in an apocalyptic novel: storylines before, during, and long after the event; making do with the things left behind by the old civilization while rebuilding in tiny communities; even traveling entertainers! It‘s all brought together by Mandel‘s beautifully drawn characters and compelling prose. I just wish there were more.

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Heartstone | Elle Katharine White
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Bailedbailed

I tried reading this faster than a chapter a day in hopes it would grab onto my interest, but it didn‘t. The only times I cared was when there were direct P&P parallels, and I can get those from the #PemberLittens posts! I‘m reading too many books right now to stick with one that isn‘t great.

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As I expected, there‘s a lot in this book. It is a memoir, both broad and deep, of Beaton‘s attempts to pay off her student loans by working at oil sites in western Canada. She tackles the sexist environment that comes with such a huge ratio of men to women (content warnings for the whole spectrum of misogyny, up to and including rape). Her artwork is beautiful. It‘s also fun to see bits of her developing online comics career!

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Heck yeah, Katie! 🩸😂

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I‘ve had high tea at the Empress! 😁

Kenyazero What are you, the queen? 😆 3mo
24 likes1 comment
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Seasparrow | Kristin Cashore
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I feel like I read a lot of books in February but my #bookspinbingo board doesn‘t seem to reflect that! Seasparrow was a #chunkster so maybe that‘s why. I got to my #doublespin but not my #bookspin; the latter has just come in from interlibrary loan. No bingo, but I‘m not really expecting to get any this year.