another book santuary

Just some place for me to rant about my readings and all of that

[booksandria]

Hi there <3

Library of Alexandria

Hey, welcome to my blog!

I'm Gia, this is my reading sideblog. You can find my main at @eventideintrigue, but beware!

I decided to create this sideblog so I can have a place to save things for later and also so I can rant about books as I go on with my Healing My Relationship With Reading journey.

As many others, i was obssessed with books in my teenage years and used to devour them so, so easily. But things change and we grow up, and suddenly i wasn't able to read as i used to (both because of time and energy, and ✨️mental illness✨️ ). This cause me to feel very guilty and ultimately took so much of the love i had for reading away, it started to feel like a chore rather than a hobbie.

So now i decided i want to find joy in reading again, without the pressure to read the same amount of books i used to, and also that i want to explore new venues with my taste in books.

Please be welcome to stick around here and walk with me as i have some fun. Let's be friends ❤️

[kidovna]

reminiscing how good we had it with s4 byler lowkey

[kidovna]

reminiscing how good we had it with s4 byler lowkey

[thetransfemininereview]

The 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction (TFR Awards)

Thirteen early contenders for the best transfeminine novel of 2025. Voting is open until December 26th at 11:59 PM EST.

It's my pleasure to announce the Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction in the 2025 TFR Reader's Choice Awards!

This year, TFR recognizes 14 titles from every genre and section of the industry 🩷

Thank you to everyone who voted early to craft this list! Voting ends December 26th at 11:59 PM EST.

[thetransfemininereview]

The Longlist:

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

A Mask for the Sun by Kay F. Atkinson

Magica Riot: Full Bloom by Kara Buchanan

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan

Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Keeping the Peace by Tris Husband

A Hungry Light by Zin Nabelle

Glitch Girl! by Rainie Oet

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

Woodworking by Emily St James

A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton

A Rotten Girl by Jemma Topaz

Machines of Consent by Sophia Turner

One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller

[yvesdot]

Let’s go @charliejaneanders!!

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

[sapphicides]

in honor of black history month 2025, i’ve put together a list of books written by black sapphic authors for you to read in the month of february

non-fiction essays/memoirs:

all about love: new visions by bell hooks

black lesbian in white america by anita cornwell

sister outsider: essays and speeches by audre lorde

mouths of rain: an anthology of black lesbian thought by briona simone jones

blues legacies and black feminism by angela davis

does your mama know?: an anthology of black lesbian coming out stories by lisa c. moore

fiction:

the color purple by alice walker

loving her by ann allen shockley

the gilda stories by jewelle gomez

in another place, not here by dionne brand

pomegranate by helen elaine lee

the summer we got free by mia mckenzie

these letters end in tears by musih tedji xaviere

dead in long beach, california by venita blackburn

young adult:

escaping mr. rochester by l.l. mckinney

this ravenous fate by hayley dennings

faebound by saraa el-arifa

so let them burn by kamilah cole

where sleeping girls lie by faridah àbíké-íyímídé

adult:

honey girl by morgan rogers

the deep by rivers solomon

sweet vengeance by viano oniomoh

come back (love concealed) by terri ronald

house of hunger by alexis henderson

short stories:

girl, woman, other by bernadine evaristo

the secret lives of church ladies by deesha philyaw

additional info:

-> “why wasn’t this book listed?” probably because it wasn’t black sapphic-centric, the author isn’t a black sapphic themself, or i just simply haven’t heard of it! so feel free to add on if it meets those two criteria

many of these books require trigger warnings, especially some of the older ones that are more likely to feature racial struggles of the time. please do your due diligence and search for tws if you want to read them!

please feel free to add onto this list in the rbs or comments! happy black history month

[mercymornsimpathizer]

an even less exhaustive list of femme literature

since a made of a list of butch lit, I thought it would be nice to make a list of femme writing by (mostly) femme authors as well. books I've read myself in bold; take the rest with a grain of salt. I'd really appreciate additions, especially of fiction!

fiction:

dykette by jenny fran davis

perfume and pain by anna dorn

trash by dorothy allison

all the pretty girls by chandra mayor

femme confidential by nairne holtz

bottle rocket hearts by zoe whittall

nonfiction:

brazen femme: queering feminity ed chloe brushwood rose and anna camilleri

femme: feminists, lesbians, and bad girls ed laura harris and elizabeth crocker

the femme mystique ed leslea newman

out of the closet and nothing to wear by leslea newman

fierce femmes and notorious liars by kai cheng thom

dirty river by leah lakshmi piepzna-samarasinha

s/he by minnie bruce pratt

naked in the promised land by lillian faderman

a restricted country by joan nestle

rust belt femme by raechel anne jolie

my dangerous desires by amber hollibaugh

odd girls and twilight lovers by lillian faderman

another mother tongue by judy grahn

boots of leather, slippers of gold by elizabeth lapovsky and madeline davis

the persistent desire ed joan nestle

persistence: all way butch and femme ed ivan coyote and zena sharman

articles/essays:

our own words by rosza daniel lang/levitsky in e-flux

high femme camp antics by jenny fran davis in la review of books

with gratitude and struggle by nan alamilla boyd in autostraddle

that time I went on a lesbian cruise and blew up my life by shannon keating in buzzfeed

femme-inism by paula austin in colonize this!

[mercymornsimpathizer]

a non-exhaustive list of butch literature

a (very ad-hoc) list of butch reading and writing, (mostly) by butch authors. books I've read myself in bold; take the rest with a grain of salt. additions, addendums, and commentary welcome :)

(you can find my list of femme literature here)

general/literary fiction:

mrs s by k patrick

stone butch blues by leslie feinberg

boulder by eva baltasar

running fiercely towards a thin high sounds by judith katz

tipping the velvet by sarah waters

a crystal diary by frankie hucklenbroich

godspeed by lynn breedlove

cha-ching! by ali liebegott

the ihop papers by ali liebegott

greasepaint by hannah levene

lucy and mickey by red jordan arobateau

the bull-jean stories by sharon bridgforth

development by bryher

notes of a crocodile by qiu miaojin

america is not the heart by elaine castillo

the slow fix by ivan coyote

the swashbuckler by lee lynch

old dyke tales by lee lynch

sci-fi, fantasy, and horror:

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

the unspoken name by ak larkwood

vermilion by molly tanzer

metal from heaven by august clarke

scapegracers by ha clarke

the unbroken by cl clarke

fire logic by laurie marks

the seep by chana porter

these burning stars by bethany jacobs

feast while you can by mikaella clements and onjuli datta

non-fiction, memoir, and autobiography:

hijab butch blues by lamya h

gender failure by ivan coyote and rae spoon

fun home by allison bechdel

butch is a noun by h bear bergman

female masculinity by jack halberstam

burning butch by rb murtz

when we were outlaws by jeanne cordova

leaving isn't the hardest thing by lauren hough

odd girls and twilight lovers by lillian faderman

another mother tongue by judy grahn

boots of leather, slippers of gold by elizabeth lapovsky and madeline davis

the persistent desire ed joan nestle

persistence: all way butch and femme ed ivan coyote and zena sharman

dagger: on butch women ed lily burana

[kitsch-habit]

Some recent and recentish additions to my lesbian book library! I used to have far more rare books including The Persistent Desire, but alas my house burned down a little over a year ago so i’m starting my book collection from scratch 😭

I mostly find my books at second hand stores, or on ebay and thrift books, i look often and very religiously because you can sometimes find rare books listed for cheap if you are quick about it. But since I don’t live in the US it can be hard to find certain titles if they’re in USD because the conversion rate is so bad, plus international shipping costs are crazy.

[cinnamonclove]

9 Books I Plan to Read in 2025

Tagged my @desertfangs and @bubblegum-blackwood Thank you 😚

A mix of novels for my classes and others that I've come across that interest me. I started Moby Dick around New years Day, and I'm halfway done, and can't stop thinking about it lmao. I began the brothers Karamazov last year but I never finished it, So I plan to this year. Prince Lestat is a reread, I don't remember that much of it.

Feel free to recommend me other books!

Tagging: @leslutdepointedulac @mariusderomanus @fofoqueirah @hekateinhell

[somerabbitholes]

Hey there! I'm curious—what were some of the best books you read in 2024? I need some recommendations...

Have a good day!! 💝 (⁠灬⁠º⁠‿⁠º⁠灬⁠)⁠♡

this took a while, because it's been a weird year for me. but here you are:

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray: I love family novels, and this was the best of the year. It’s about the Barnes family, who are doing badly economically, and sort of unravelling generally. The characters were beautifully crafted and I loved the sense of freefall in the novel

Orbital by Samantha Harvey: loved, loved, loved the way it thought about the earth and tried to articulate what the planet means. My phone is full of photos of pages and paragraphs I liked

India's Near East by Avinash Paliwal: this is about how India’s domestic and foreign policy along its border with Myanmar and Bangladesh basically influence each other. I learnt a lot here and it was generally interesting to see how the border region is governed and policed

The Social Construction of the Ocean by Philip Steinberg: this changed my brain. Steinberg is a geographer, and this book is about how the ocean means different things to different cultures and the meaning comes from specific political and economic histories of these cultures. It tries to trace the origins of current systems of ocean governance and it was so so interesting to be able to think about space this way

Employees by Olga Ravn (trans. Martin Aitken): same territory as Orbital in that it’s about what it means to be people. This is narrated as witness statements from people and humanoids working on a spaceship, but the book doesn’t tell you which is which, so it’s like an exercise in investigating what makes humanity unique

India trilogy by V. S. Naipaul: he wrote these three books over a thirty year period of visiting India, and I loved them for the amount of detail in them and for how they always managed to say something more complex and simply more interesting than a lot of other journalistic accounts on India. And I’ve always enjoyed that Naipaul goes to the logical end of his arguments, so that was great too.

Dominion by Tom Holland: this was my fun history read of the year. He traces the influence and persistence of Christian thought in wider European thinking and imagination now, and since this is not something I know a lot about, it was great to learn

Finally, I’m not yet done with Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan, but it’s shaping up to be another favourite.

Have a nice day!

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

People who don’t want to read The Martian in case the science is too complicated should be informed that it contains the lines “The best way to store the ingredients of water is to make them be water”, “It is of course dangerous to set off an explosive device on a spacecraft”, and “If I cut a hole in the wall of the hab, the air won’t stay inside any more”.

[neilarmstrong]

I love this fucking book

[osheamobile]

“I’ve said the words kilowatt-hours-per-sol so many times they’ve lost all meaning so I’m going to call them pirate-ninjas.

“So I need to generate nine hundred pirate-ninjas…”

[magnificentbane-deactivated2019]

there’s an entire chapter dedicated to him wondering how the cubs are doing while he’s stuck on mars, dying

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I like the part where the guys on Earth are like “He thinks we all gave up on him, and that he’s completely alone. I wonder what he’s thinking about right now.” And he’s like “How come Aquaman can control whales?”

[direwolfblackrose]

“ As with most of life’s problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation. “

“Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be “in command” if I were the only remaining person.”

Two pages later… “What do you know? I’m in command”

“Me: “This is obviously a clog. How about I take it apart and check the internal tubing?” NASA: (after five hours of deliberation) “No. You’ll fuck it up and die.” So I took it apart.

And my personal favorite :” Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape. Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”

[mcgregorswench]

[rosieposiepuddingnpie]

One of my favorites:

“Each crewman had their own laptop. So I have six at my disposal. Rather, I had six. I now have five. I thought a laptop would be fine outside. It’s just electronics, right? It’ll keep warm enough to operate in the short term, and it doesn’t need air for anything. It died instantly. The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”

[pangur-and-grim]

I’ve gone insane and started writing a cliche fantasy novel

[pangur-and-grim]

[pangur-and-grim]

why did nobody tell me that writing is the adult equivalent of playing with dolls

[pangur-and-grim]

[pangur-and-grim]

AND WHAT A LONG WAY WE’VE COME!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Tips for Critical Reading

You'll find many ways to read and understand a text, but keeping a journal as you read is one of the best ways of exploring a piece of writing. By integrating reading and writing, you can interact with the work more fully.

Begin each new novel, play or poem without predetermined bias. If you decide in advance that all good art uses realistic settings and promotes your personal moral values, you close out the possibility of new experiences. You do not have to, nor should you, enjoy every work of literature that you read, but you should be willing to recognize that the imagination is limitless.

Read slowly. This suggestion can't be stressed enough. If you roller-skate through an art museum you won't see the paintings.

Read with pen in hand. Underline key phrases, speeches by major figures, or important statements by the narrator. But don't limit yourself. Underline or highlight anything that seems important or striking. Take notes on ideas or questions (don't trust your memory). Write in the margins. Keep a list of the characters and/or major events on the inside of the front cover. Circle words used in special ways or repeated in significant patterns. Look up words that you don't know or words you think you know but seem to have a special weight or usage.

Look for those qualities that professional writers look for in real life: conflict, contrast, contradiction, and characterization.

Look for rhythm, repetition, and pattern. Successful works of literature incorporate such structural devices in the language, dialogue, plot, characterization, and elsewhere. Pattern is form, and form is the shaping the artist gives to his or her experience. If you can identify the pattern and relate it to the content, you'll be on your way to insight.

Ask silent questions of the material as you read. Don't read passively, waiting to be told the "meaning." Most authors will seldom pronounce a moral. Even if they do, a work of literature is always more than its theme. Use the questions devised by reporters: Who, What, When, Where. Why and How may take more study—such questions probe the inner levels of a text.

Keep a reading journal. Record your first impressions, explore relationships, ask questions, write down quotations, and copy whole passages that are difficult or aesthetically pleasing.

The Reading Journal

Christopher Thaiss in Write to the Limit (Chicago: Holt, 1991) notes that the word journal comes from the French word for day, which is jour.

The word indicates that a journal is kept daily.

Thaiss also suggests that journals are kept for many different reasons: to record events, to keep an ongoing public record, to record feelings, to make close observations for scientific purposes and, finally, to explore emotions, memories and images in order to think and learn about any subject.

Don't feel overwhelmed. Just relax; notice and feel things.

Associate ideas with other subjects, objects or feelings.

Try the following 3 steps:

First, write what you see in the text at the surface level.

Next, write what you feel about what you see.

Finally, write down what you think it means or why you think it is important.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

[specialagentartemis]

Also picking up new books you’ve never heard of before because the premise sounds neat or the cover is pretty or it’s on a themed library display or you’re just trying to read your library’s entire catalogue of 90s cyberpunk is just fun. Sometimes it’s not your thing but you get to mull over new ideas or the diversity of people and opinions and thoughts in the world. Sometimes you discover your new favorite book of all time

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Tips for Getting Published as a Writer

Don't write just to get published. Write for the sake of writing, even if you're going to give your book away for free.

Look for literary agents who represent authors in your genre.

Do your research into an agent before you approach them with your query letter.

Create a properly formatted query letter to help you attract the right agent.

Edit your work before you attempt to find a literary agent.

If you're a novelist, don't send a query letter until you have a completed manuscript.

If you're writing non-fiction, send a book proposal instead of completing a book.

Understand that some books are more difficult to market to publishers than others. Publishers prefer to publish romance, crime, young adult, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery/thriller, and erotica.

Consider self-publishing, especially if you're selling a book that's typically difficult to get published by a big publisher. For example, non-fiction books written by unknown authors are always a tough sell.

Build an audience before courting an agent. Agents and publishers are more willing to work with new authors who already have an audience. Start a blog. Get social on social media. Become a voice on genre-relevant forums and communities.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References Writing References: Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding

[henryclervals]

Masterpost of Free Gothic Literature & Theory

Classics Vathek by William Beckford Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The Woman in White  & The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Monk by Matthew Lewis The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin The Vampyre; a Tale by John Polidori Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Dracula by Bram Stoker The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Short Stories and Poems An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience by William Blake The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Pre-Gothic Beowulf The Divine Comedy  by Dante Alighieri A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe Paradise Lost by John Milton Macbeth by William Shakespeare Oedipus, King of Thebes by Sophocles The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

Gothic-Adjacent Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood Jane Eyre & Villette by Charlotte Brontë Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems by Coleridge and Wordsworth The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens The Idiot & Demons (The Possessed) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas Moby-Dick by Herman Melville The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

Historical Theory and Background The French Revolution of 1789 by John S. C. Abbott Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance by Edith Birkhead On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle Demonology and Devil-Lore by Moncure Daniel Conway Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism by Inman and Newton On Liberty by John Stuart Mill The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Feminism in Greek Literature from Homer to Aristotle by Frederick Wright

Academic Theory Introduction: Replicating Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture by Will Abberley Viewpoint: Transatlantic Scholarship on Victorian Literature and Culture by Isobel Armstrong Theories of Space and the Nineteenth-Century Novel by Isobel Armstrong The Higher Spaces of the Late Nineteenth-Century Novel by Mark Blacklock The Shipwrecked salvation, metaphor of penance in the Catalan gothic by Marta Nuet Blanch Marching towards Destruction: the Crowd in Urban Gothic by Christophe Chambost Women, Power and Conflict: The Gothic heroine and “Chocolate-box Gothic” by Avril Horner Psychos’ Haunting Memories: A(n) (Un)common Literary Heritage by Maria Antónia Lima ‘Thrilled with Chilly Horror’: A Formulaic Pattern in Gothic Fiction by Aguirre Manuel The terms “Gothic” and “Neogothic” in the context of Literary History by O. V. Razumovskaja  The Female Vampires and the Uncanny Childhood by Gabriele Scalessa Curating Gothic Nightmares by Heather Tilley Elizabeth Bowen, Modernism, and the Spectre of Anglo-Ireland by James F. Wurtz Hesitation, Projection and Desire: The Fictionalizing ‘as if…’ in Dostoevskii’s Early Works by Sarah J. Young Intermediality and polymorphism of narratives in the Gothic tradition by Ihina Zoia