#bindery books

[il-castagno-press]

Mediterranean motifs 🌞

A little glimpse into my newest collection.

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[hi-there-cat]

Review: Black Salt Queen by Samantha Bansil - 4.5 / 5 stars

Black Salt Queen is one of those fantasy books that hits you with a ton of new vocabulary right out of the gate and doesn’t feel the need to immediately insert a relative clause explaining each term for the unknowing reader. Now, even though I myself have the working memory capacity of a piece of bread, I really love this type of world-building, because it feels very organic. But it did mean that the beginning of the book was a bit of a struggle for me, since it not only introduced lots of vocab, but also lots of characters. But I’m soooo glad I fought through that first little bit cause the book ended up being really good.

The first 60% were okay. The last 40% were phenomenal. I don’t know when I last felt such intense emotions over a book, I was so goddamn angry (but in a good way). If you're used to reading fantasy where there's always something intense going on, you're probably gonna have some issues sticking with this book, but all of the build-up from the first half is so worth it for all of the emotional gut-punches the story delivers in the second half.

I really appreciate the level of nuance contained in the story, there's a lot of political intrigue that is wonderfully written. It’s not really a situation where you can conclusively say that either party are the ‘bad guys’, but you’re still left rooting a bit more for one side over the other. It’s just incredibly well set up, both sides have good points and also both sides act sorta asshole-ish at points. A lot of the political issues brought up in the book were not resolved by the end, so I’m excited to see how those are handled in the sequel. 

Also, one of the very few instances where I’m fine with the gays getting buried, probably for the best.

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Thank you to Bindery for the ARC!

[lgbtqreads]

April 2024 Deal Announcements

Featured Deal Levine Querido buys YA contemporary ONE OF THE BOYS in 24-hour pre-empt  In a 24-hour pre-empt, Irene Vázquez at Levine Querido has acquired Victoria Zeller’s debut novel One of the Boys. Jordan Hamessley at JABberwocky Literary Agency sold world English and world Spanish rights.  Continue reading April 2024 Deal Announcements

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[il-castagno-press]

New decorative papers I picked up in Italy and Germany 🇮🇹🇩🇪

The papers from the first photo are from Giulio Giannini e Figlio a paper Atelier in Florence and the other ones I picked up at Lauterwasser Fotografie und Papeterie In Überlingen.

[il-castagno-press]

I made some homemade bookcloth 🌸

I bought these lovely textiles from a cute little store in Evanston, IL. Things went much smoother this time around ahah. I made bookcloth last year and it did not go well….

Anyways, I have a new collection on the way! Yay! Get ready for my Valentine’s Day/Spring books.

[il-castagno-press]

I made a promo poster for the bindery 🌞✨

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone that has been with me on this journey so far, it’s been a couple of years of hard work and doubt, but your support has kept me going. I would not be here without your comments, questions, curiosity, and patronage. There is so much more to come! I’m excited for what I have in store the next few months and years. Being an artist is hard, especially right now with AI and all the other bs. So thank you for supporting this immigrant owned, queer owned, minority owned bindery ✌️🏽 You are all part of the dream.

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈

- Nicki

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[il-castagno-press]

These were some of my very first books. It’s cool to look back and see how far I’ve come over the past three years. Even with their wonkiness these little books still are some of my favorites. The inside text block was made with some green toned paper that I had lying around.

Also, green is my favorite color.

[il-castagno-press]

This is the other book - I decided to feature the horse on the front cover since it is year of the horse. I love these two books so much (˃̣̣̥ヘ˂̣̣̥)

They remind me so much of illustrations from a children’s book.

Make sure to check out my previous post to see the other book.