Friday Fics Fix - Challenging My Golden Fic Rule...

 

Warning: this post discusses mental health problems

'Ed is happy, Stede is happy, the crew is happy. Izzy stands on the sidelines with rope in his hands, watching them all mingle and play. No one seems to notice the shadows under his eyes, how they grow darker, how the purple bruise-like colour seems permanently inked onto his skin these days.'

 

 

Every so often, a fic comes along which challenges my golden rule of fanfic-rec'ing.

And the golden rule is, of course: If it's well-written, I must rec.

Friday Fics Fix - Izzy Hands Is Being Haunted

 

'His captain just looked sad, like he'd failed Izzy in some way.'

 

OH MY GOD THIS FIC!!!!

krhguergjopwrgm';¬!

...sorry, had to fangirl over the page a bit there. This fic is so good. 

Like - page-turning, stayed up an extra hour to read some more, good.

Friday Fics Fix - Blackbeard's Bedraggled Attack Dog

 

'Izzy stared at the doily, trying to imagine where on the high seas they might have stolen that from. Izzy looked up to find Bonnet looking at him meaningfully, then down at the sandwiches. And back.'

  

First thing's first: it's my birthday today! (15th Sep)

Woo!

If you feel like doing so, you can buy me a birthday coffee here. But don't worry, I'll still love ya if you don't 😘

OK, back to our regularly scheduled fandom-ing:

Yes it's some Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) this week!

It's a well-written fic, and you know I have no choice: I must rec. These are the rules. *nods sagely*

7 Asian Historical Novels From My TBR

*This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.com (US) - I receive a small commission from qualifying purchases made using these links*

Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is always growing exponentially -

and I may never get the time to read every book that's on it (or even a fraction of all the books that's on there - there's like 1000 books, Send. Help.)

- from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the diverse titles on there.

Partly to spotlight these books, and partly to remind me what I want to read and why I wanted to read it! 😅

This time around, it's time for a TBR post for some of the Asian historical novels on my list.

These are all (to the best of my knowledge) both set in Asia, and written by Asian authors.

(Obviously, since this is a TBR, I haven't read any of these - they might be amazing, they might be awful, they might be anywhere in between!)

Friday Fics Fix - Quite Frankly Batpoop OFMD Vibes

 

'“I think I’m gonna faint now,” Stede says. He nods to himself. “Yes, I think that’s it for me for a while.”'

 

Are we all recovered from the shock of AO3 going down earlier in the week? Yes? Good.

I really wish there was more than one fanfiction site with AO3's usability, range, and download feature. But I suppose that would be greedy. 😘😅

(Fandom notes:

AO3 = Archive Of Our Own - the biggest and probably most widely used fanfiction site.)

So, with AO3 safely returned to its rightful place on the interwebs, I have some Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) fanfiction for ya!

(It's been like... 3 weeks since I last rec'd OFMD. #Restraint.)

Friday Fics Fix - For Stucky Purposes

 

'He promised more details when they weren’t running for their lives, and Bucky was damn well going to hold him to that. Because this kind of stuff didn’t just happen to people.'

One of the many, many, things I love about fanfiction is the breadth of the writing.

Fanfic writers are as varied and diverse a group as you're likely to find - which means the range of the stuff they write is incredible.

...which, while all 100% true, is something I'm bringing up here because I'm rationalising bringing you a fic from the same fandom two weeks in a row 😅

But - BUT! - this fic is so different to last week's that it feels like they're from different fandoms entirely!

(...and if that still didn't convince you, then I'll remind you that it's my blog, so I get pick the fanfiction 😅)

Nerd Church - Of Monsters, Mice, and Men

 

'Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.'

- Holocaust survivor Primo Levi

Friday Fics Fix - Not That Strange

 

'The great fairy incident of 1822 was depicted in many paintings, the most famous of them being The Seelie Siege of London by an unknown painter with a penchant for alliteration.'

 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a behemoth of a book.

It's over 1000 pages of alternate history, set in a world where the titular characters are bringing magic back to England, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.

Friday Fics Fix - Pride Fics Fest: Jack the Lass

Welcome back to Pride Fics Fest! That period in June where I stop pretending straight and fanfiction have anything to say to each other 😉

This post contains SPOILERS for Gentleman Jack, series 1

SPOILERS!!!! OK? SPOILERS

Gentleman Jack is a truly amazing BBC historical drama, based on the life and diaries of 18th/19th Century English Lesbian, landowner, and businesswoman, Anne Lister.

Anne left extensive, coded, diaries - many of which were fairly sexually explicit.

I love this series - a well-written, well-acted, period drama about Lesbians who are complex, flawed, genuine, people. It's so good!

Nerd Church - I Watched Jojo Rabbit: Part 3 - The Bittersweet Tale of Captain K

 

Yes! It's here! The final part of 'I Watched Jojo Rabbit' aka Cee can't stop rabbiting on about this film!

If you want to catch up on Part 1 - which is a general look at the hope and humanity of the film Jojo Rabbit - you can do that here.

Or check out Part 2 - which is me fearlessly facing the uncomfortable facets of history because Taika Waititi made this film - over here.

...Honestly I could've kept talking about this film and issues it brings up for the rest of my life, but let's hope 3 parts is enough!

Nerd Church - I Watched Jojo Rabbit: Part 2 - Facing History

Welcome to the next instalment of I Watched Jojo Rabbit, aka 'Cee rabbits on about Jojo Rabbit!*'

(And no, I could not resist the pun.)

While you don't need to have read Part 1 of this mini-post-series in order to understand this part, I do recommend reading it (which I would do, because I wrote it,) to get a more generalised view of Jojo Rabbit as a film.

You can read part one here.

Jojo Rabbit is a funny and heart-warming film, with a dark and deeply uncomfortable edge.

And this post? This post looks at that darker part of Jojo Rabbit - from the controversial premise to the dark nature of this darkest period of history.

We're gonna get uncomfortable, dearest nerdlets, fair warning.

* = commission link

Nerd Church - I Watched Jojo Rabbit: Part 1 - The Survival of Humanity

(Warning: due to the subject matter of the film Jojo Rabbit, this post discusses: war, Nazis, Hitler, the Holocaust, bigotry, indoctrination)

I watched Jojo Rabbit...

Jojo Rabbit* is a 2019 film written, directed, and starring the legendary Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.

(It's inspired by, rather than based on, the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens.)

It is a comedy about Nazis.

And yes, you read that right.

It is a comedy about Nazis.

* = commission link

Review! - Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of The Faun by Guillermo Del Toro and Cornelia Funke

 ***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US*** 

Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.

Title: Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of The Faun

Author: Guillermo Del Toro and Cornelia Funke

Genre: Media Tie-In, Horror, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tales (-ish,) Magic Realism(-ish,) Young Adult (Maybe? Maybe just adult with YA appeal. It's kind of difficult to gage the age range here!)

Amazon USA

From My TBR: 15 Young Adult and Middle Grade Books By Black Authors

 

(Warning: this post references racism and police brutality)

 ***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US*** 

Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.

There are three important reasons for me writing this post:

1. Black Lives still Matter.

2. It's always a good time to highlight diverse books.

and 3. There are so many amazing Black creators out there, who don't always get the recognition they deserve.

So here's a small selection of some of the Young Adult (YA) and Middle Grade (MG) books on my TBR list that were written by Black authors.

For those of you who don't know the book-blog lingo - a TBR is a 'to-be-read' list. Mine is immortal and cannot be stopped. Send help.

For those of you who are British like me, and/or haven't heard the book blogging term, Middle Grade books are those aimed at (roughly) ages 8-12, or 8-14, depending who you ask.

(Quick disclaimer: obviously, I haven't read these books, just their synopses, so I don't know what they're like in terms of content, quality, etc.)

I hope you find something to add to your own TBR, and remember to support Black authors, and other Black creators.

There're so many talented Black authors out there who deserve our attention!

I Watched The Film First! *Gasps* - 5 Books That I Read Because I'd Seen The Adaptations

 ***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US*** 

Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.

You know the voice that's just like: 'you've read the book, now see the movie!'

...that voice doesn't know me at all.

I read a butt-tonne of books. 

Like, I read at the 200-per-year kind of speed.

But I watch loads of film and TV adaps. before I read the book.

Mini-Review! - Dat's Love and Other Stories by Leonora Brito

**This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.com (US). I earn commission from qualifying purchases**

Title: Dat's Love and Other Stories

(Also published as 'Selected Stories)

Author: Leonora Brito

Genres: Anthology, Short Stories, Contemporary(-ish,) Historical Fiction

Buy now on Amazon.com

Review Time! - Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

**This post contains affiliate links from Amazon.com (USA.) I earn from qualifying purchases**

Title: Tipping the Velvet

Author: Sarah Waters

Genres: Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+ (see below for rep,) (Modern) Classics, Romance(-ish)

Buy Now Amazon USA

Really Mini-Reviews! - The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

I have two reviews for stunning collections of short stories by Asian-American writers for you today dear nerdlets!

Check out my reviews of The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu:

Friday Fics Fix - Da Vinci, Like Never Before

'"What did they do to you?" he whispered. "What have you done to yourself?" he added without thinking. Words tumbling out of his mouth like the thoughts that used to tangle in his mind. "What did I do?"'

This week's fic is for a TV show I absolutely adore, and which was cut short too soon after just 3 series.

Da Vinci's Demons is a highly underrated show.

It's basically like Game of Thrones with real historical people, but keeping the weird-a** paranormal/fantasy elements.

So it's kind of like an alternate version of history, with a young bad-boy Leonardo Da Vinci.

Month in Review(s) - July 2018

Where did July go?!

Like... I know sometimes time goes quick, but really?!

I think it's the heat.

I spent most of the month slouching around the house, trying to cool down, and being a generally not-nice person to be around.

Me + heat = grump monster! Lol.