tjustwrites

I just finished listening to Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers by Anthony Delaney. It was a great book about an overlooked history! I recommend it highly! Full review is coming out next Monday on my substack! Follow the link in the bio!
#booksky

I got my physical copy of the penstricken issue in the mail told, I can’t believe I am holding my first published story in my hands!
#writer #firstpublication #penstricken

MACHINERY The world is full of machines: natural and artificial, physical and abstract, but all with a shared sense of orderliness and clockwork function. In this issue, our contributors have been exploring …

My first published short story “The Great Leveling” has been released today! Follow the the link to read it! penstricken.com/machinery

I will do reading notes of fiction, but it might be a few weeks before I finished this book. Thanks for all the support and reading these notes. I really appreciate it.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

I am taking a little break from listening to fiction audiobooks for a bit. I just started listening Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers by Anthony Delaney and I might try to do some reading notes on that for a few days and see how it feels.
#booksky

I wouldn’t call this a sequel to the book, but it does explore the world a little bit more.
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Day 13:
I finished "The Ladies of Grace Adieu” and it finished with one of the best pieces in the anthology. I was looking to the "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner" becuase of the references made to the story in the footnotes in Jonathan Strange and Mr.norrell.
#booksky #audiobook

Day 12:
"Tom Brightwind, or How the Fairy Bridge was Built at Thoresby" is almost done and it was the better stories in the Anthology. The relationship between two main characters reminds me of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The hitchhiker guide to the galaxy.
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Day 11:
I just finished "Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower" and now I am on "Tom Brightwind, or How the Fairy Bridge was Built at Thoresby" a story a like a little bit better with it foot notes, which I am always a sucker for.
#booksky #audiobook #audiobook

Day 10:
I think I am almost done with "Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower". Like Mrs Mabbits a bit weaker than a other pieces.
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Day 9:
I am still listening to "Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower". Like I said previously this story is more ominous than the last and I think there won’t be a happy or at least a whimsical ending like the others.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Day 8:
I finished "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse" and now I am on "Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower" , a much ominous story.
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Day 7:
I finished “Mrs. Mabb” and I am currently on "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse"
A humorous story that feels like a fairy tale. Of course most of these stories are like fairy tales. There is a whimsical sense to these stories.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Day 6:
I am almost done with “Mrs. Mabb”. It’s a bit all over the place, but i still like it.
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Of course in the novels worlds past their were female magicians, but the title character were mostly dismissive of them. This was just them trap in their time and how they view gender.
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I have read that Clarke, wanted to be accurate to the time period so she didn’t have a lot of independent woman in the story who study magic, at least till the end.
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Day 5:
I am still on “Mrs. Mabb”. From the stories I have read, the focus is on female characters and dealing with magic and fairies. This is actually a nice change of pace from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell who was very male centric.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Day 4:
Just finished “On Lickerish Hill" and was a good example of first person narration. It was very similar to rumpelstiltskin. I am currently listening to "Mrs Mabb" and I’m amazed how breezy some of the stories are compared to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
#booksky #audiobooks #writer

Which is a shame because it could have been interesting to see, but I feel it would have made the novel even longer and more complex to read. Even when you are writing a doorstopper sometimes you have to simplify.
#booksky #audiobooks #writer

Day 3:
I just finished "The Ladies of Grace Adieu” and now I am on “On Lickerish Hill". I did some quick research and found that she tried to have the titular characters be in Johnathan Strange and Mr.Norrell, but couldn’t fit them in.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Again this an anthology, so I won’t be focusing on plot summary are much more on commentary. Have you read this book? Let me know in comments and please no spoilers.
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Day 2:
In "The Ladies of Grace Adieu”, we meet some old friends and new ones. I am always astounded by how well Clarke describes characters and setting. You can tell she did her research and put a lot of effort into writing her world like a 19th century novel.
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This might be a change of pace because in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (the anthology takes place in that world) there were very few female magicians.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Day 1:
This is an interesting one to cover because it is an anthology rather than a novel. It is set up like a primer to talk about English magic and female involvement.
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There is a lot of tenderness and kindness between the characters. I highly recommend it. Yesterday I started The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susana Clarke. That’s right I am going back the world of Johnathan Strange and Mr.Norrell. More in another post.
#booksky #audiobook #writer

Day 18 the end:
Dr. Rieux reflects on the plague the possibility of it returning in the future. I really like this book, though the philosophical pondering was sometimes hard to get through. It was very similar to Covid and I understand why it spiked in Popularity during that time.
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There is one more scene to play out as Dr. Rieux witness a shootout between police and a character we meet before. This has been a great book to listen to and I recommend anybody to experience fully to either read or to listen to it.
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Day 17:
As the novel closes the narrator is revealed to be Dr. Rieux who has tried to be as objective and open-minded about other people experiences during the plague time that even when he is talking about himself he still uses third person.
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Day 16:
The plague is starting subside, even the rats are back. I think we are entering the aftermath of the plague and how Camus would look at it prose will be interesting. Will it be similar to the tapering off of Covid?
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He is probably my second favorite character and probably has the most agency in the novel, but he is still trapped by the sheer power of the plague.
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