Compilation Of All The Beautiful Illustrations By Howard Lyon In Tress Of The Emerald Sea. For The Audiobook

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay || Octavia E. Butler ★★★★★ Started: 09.02.2025 Finished: 09.02.2025 Originally published in Essence magazine in the year 2000, Octavia E. Butler’s essay “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future” offers an honest look into the inspiration behind her science fiction novels and the importance of studying history and taking responsibility for our actions if we are to move forward. Organized into four main rules, this short essay reminds readers to learn from the past, respect the law of consequences, be aware of their perspectives, and count on the surprises. Citing the warning signs of fascism, the illusive effects of fear and wishful thinking, and the unpredictable nature of what is yet to come, Butler shares realistic but hopeful suggestions to shape our future into something good. If I was on the fence about reading "Parable of the Sower" before, I'm bumping it right towards the top of my TBR now. Butler's writing is just that good. Thank you, Goodreads Challenges!

A Certain Hunger || Chelsea G. Summers ★★★★☆ Started: 21.12.2024 Finished: 28.12.2024 Food critic Dorothy Daniels loves what she does. Discerning, meticulous, and very, very smart, Dorothy’s clear mastery of the culinary arts make it likely that she could, on any given night, whip up a more inspired dish than any one of the chefs she writes about. Dorothy loves sex as much as she loves food, and while she has struggled to find a long-term partner that can keep up with her, she makes the best of her single life, frequently traveling from Manhattan to Italy for a taste of both. But there is something within Dorothy that’s different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority. A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers’s A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world’s most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Beautiful World, Where Are You || Sally Rooney ★★☆☆☆ Started: 12.05.2025 Finished: 24.05.2025 This was, unfortunately, not a very pleasant experience overall… I think I might have enjoyed "Beautiful World, Where Are You" if I had already been a fan of Sally Rooney, what with Alice's letters being essentially letters the author could have written in real life, but given that this was the first book of hers I read, the musings just felt like being lectured at by a person you barely know and don't particularly like. The remaining three main characters, whose lives we'd follow in every other chapter, likewise, were hard to root for - I'm no stranger to a flawed character, but maybe 30 chapters of Unpeasant characters being actively Unpleasant to each other and, despite that, ending up in what I'm sure will be ultimately Unpleasant relationships with each other is a tad bit much.

blood over bright haven by m.l. wang

because good people can turn desperate when the horrors are upon them—especially people whose culture of plenty has left them with no systems to cope with scarcity or cataclysm. good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.

Even blood washes out, or you can fill your mouth with things that hide the taste.

Sophie Mackintosh, excerpt from Cursed Bread

Experimenting with a different kind of graphic for the April wrap-up! Finished up the Goodreads Community Favorites Challenge and made a little progress with my 25 for 2025!