Icon meme

via oldtoadwoman : pick three of my icons and I'll tell you more about them. Or comment with "do me!" and I'll pick three of yours.

This is Katherine Pierce, one of my faves! Her catchphrase is "Better you die than I." She's the best Petrova doppleganger on The Vampire Diaries, and a vampire who is over 500 years old. This particular scene was when she was trapped in a room courtesy of a Big Bad called Klaus and made the most of it by drinking. I stopped watching TVD in S5 and I heard they killed her off so no regrets about dropping the show.

This is Caroline Forbes, also from TVD. This is the priceless WTF reaction she made when her boyfriend said something stupid.

I made this from the FFVII remake trailer that came out a few weeks ago. Tifa and Cloud are both small town teens here with big dreams and romantic ideas. After Cloud tells Tifa that he plans to become an elite SOLDIER, Tifa asks Cloud to promise to be her hero and rescue her if she's ever in a bind, and he agrees. (We find out later that this scene is not exactly as it appears on the surface, but it's still sweet and one of the prettiest backgrounds in the game.)

Boooooooks

I've skipped so many Reading Wednesdays so here, have a whole bunch of reviews at once! :DDD Putting in the book covers too, by request. :)

Whose Story is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters by Rebecca Solnit
I enjoy all her essay collections and this was no exception. Focused on the history and patterns of erasure of women's POV, and how we can start to take it back. Her Hope in the Dark is a book I want to revisit right now, especially.

The Iron Trial by Holly Black (Magisterium #1)
This was passable reading, but not engaging enough for me to bother with the rest of the series. A Harry Potter knockoff, with characters acting in implausible ways to forward the plot. Like I get that the wild creature needed to be present at the end but um. 

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo
LOVELOVELOVE I am buying a real copy of this; I need this in my home library. Haunting. Clever. Lyrical. Honest. The last is what fairytales tend not to be, and this treats its characters with cynical realism despite the fairytale format and settings in worlds with mermaids and elemental magic. Just gorgeous. I like this even better than her full length novels, I think. LOL

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
I was recced this when I did my why I love epistolary post during Snowflake Challenge, and it was delightful! Both an amusing example of inventive writing under constraints and commentary on the abuse of political power and censorship. What would happen if we lost the ability to use z, the last and arguably least of our alphabet? (Likely: not much- I can't even find a z in this entry except when mentioning it here.) But what happens if other letters then start getting outlawed? Dunn took a quirky idea and just ran with it- this book is such a piece of art, and I highly recommend it.

Entranced by Nora Roberts (The Donovan Legacy #2) I re-read this because I needed some comfort reading and as a refresher because I had discovered Enchanted, which was not available when I bought these books. This is one of my favorite romance novels ever- both characters are vivid and likable, and the central plot/mystery is really well done. I also highly rec Book 3 of this series (Charmed).

Enchanted by Nora Roberts (The Donovan Legacy #4) was such a disappointment. Consent issues and a controlling, withholding hero who yells a lot. Yeah, nope, not sexy to me. I also didn't find the heroine very compelling or memorable. The little glimpse of the other Donovans was nice (awww more babies!) but I was happy to return this to the library.

White Hot by Ilona Andrews (Hidden Legacy #2) I loved this next step in Nevada and Rogan's trilogy. Exciting, action filled high stakes plot and the romance coming to a head was awesome. Can't wait to get the last (Wildfire)! According to their blog, the next book in Catalina's trilogy (Emerald Blaze) has gone to the editor so it should be coming out soonish too!


Next up in mah Libby: Number the Stars, The Deep, A Woman of No Importance, The Stone Sky