etben | three things make a post!

Thing One: delightful sunny happy beachy day, yaaaay! I haven't really made it out to a New England beach this year (apart from some quality time at Revere), so it was great to do that and see some excellent humans (even if I totally did burn the shit out of my shoulders, but what the hell, it's not summer without sunburn).

I also made these brownies, which were magical and delicious, so if you're looking for a good fudge brownie recipe, here you go!

Thing Two: In between various wedding planning shit and trying not to panic about the impending school year, I've been reading a lot! So, A, if you're on Goodreads, we should be buds, and, B, here's a books meme! Stolen from

sansets, because books! Boooooooks.

Give me a letter and I will hold forth on one of the following topics:

A. Author You’ve Read The Most Books From
B. Best Sequel Ever
C. Currently Reading
D. Drink of Choice While Reading
E. E-Reader or Physical Books
F. Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School
G. Glad You Gave This Book A Chance
H. Hidden Gem Book
I. Important Moments of Your Reading Life
J. Just Finished
K. Kinds of Books You Won’t Read
L. Longest Book You’ve Read
M. Major Book Hangover Because Of
N. Number of Bookcases You Own
O. One Book That You Have Read Multiple Times
P. Preferred Place to Read
Q. Quote From A Book That Inspires You/Gives You Feels
R. Reading Regret
S. Series You Started and Need to Finish
T. Three Of Your All-Time Favorite Books
U. Unapologetic Fangirl For
W. Worst Bookish Habit
V. Very Excited For This Release More Than Any Other
X. Marks The Spot (Start On Your Bookshelf And Count to the 27th Book)
Y. Your Latest Book Purchase
Z. ZZZ-Snatcher (last book that kept you up WAY late)

Thing Three: Is anybody else watching the current cycle of Project Runway? Anybody? Bueller?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

those were the best brownies I ever had.

and O! Give me O!

OH MAN. So I'm going to cheat a little and do a few books:

• The Song of the Lioness books & the Wild Magic books, by Tamora Pierce, were hands-down the books I read most frequently in middle school and high school. HANDS DOWN. Ladies disguised as knights! Ladies with magic! Ladies kicking ass and taking names! SO GOOD.

• Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett, is probably the book I have reread the most overall, because it resonates so deeply with so much of who I am as a person. Like, it's not primarily about education, so there's that? BUT IN ALL OTHER WAYS, it is my soul in book form.

• Sorcery & Cecilia, OR: The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede, is the book I have most recently read for the umpteenth time - it's an epistolary novel, told by two cousins in a version of Regency England where MAGIC is totally a thing, and there are adventures and a great deal of silliness, and it's dumb as hell but I LOVE it.

P or T, please? :D? (I was going to ask for O first up but I see T beat me to it :D)

<3333 yay beach and yayyyy reading (and also yay wedding! :D)

Well, I think that T is kind of the same as O? in that NIGHT WATCH NIGHT WATCH NIGHT WATCH, and also the Alanna and Daine books (one of my MS besties thought that the Daine/Numair relationship was weird and creepy, and it legitimately almost ended our friendship), and then...probably Pride & Prejudice, actually. I AM PREDICTABLE AND I DON'T MIND.

So, P: Preferred place to read! I will read basically anywhere, tbh - I read on the couch a lot, or in bed, and when I had a bus commute I read on buses a fair amount, but right now I am basically obsessed with the idea of, a) owning a hammock, and b) reading in that hammock, so I am going to say that my preferred place to read would be my imaginary hammock that I will someday own.

These answers all make me happy to the very depths of my soul. <333

A! And yeah, I used to read in a hammock a Lot, and also read in a floating inner tube a lot, and it was a toss up as to which was more awesome. The hammock idea is a great one!

A. Author you've read the most books from. Hmmmmm. I've always a ridiculous completionist—when I find an author I like, I read everything by that author, no matter how wretched. So as a kid I read probably all of the Nancy Drew books, everything that Tamora Pierce has ever written, and a shitton of Orson Scott Card, before I realized what a bigoted fuckstick he was. Oh, and Mercedes Lackey! A lot of Mercedes Lackey.

I've loosened up a little with age; it's partly because I'm getting better at allowing myself to not finish a series if I hate the first book, and it's partly because I'm reading fewer epic series, but it's also definitely because I just have a lot less free time than I used to. Still, I've read pretty much everything Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant publishes, because, ugh, excellent queer-positive urban fantasy, party of ME.

An excellent day! And excellent brownies, ty for the recipe!

I pick F. Or H.

F. Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School: LIZZIE BENNETT. Which is mostly because I am Darcy, in a profoundly embarrassing way, but also because Elizabeth Bennett is basically the epitome of the smart, pretty, articulate girls that I really really admired when I was 15 and desperately unaware of my own sexuality. Oh, bb!self. You were so smart! And yet, so dumb.

H. Hidden Gem Books: IDK that it's that hidden, but Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics is a book that I super enjoyed while not ever hearing much about.

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