November Reading Roundup

November 26, 2024

this is kind of a funny time to start doing monthly reading journals, because i genuinly didn't read a ton this month. we've been moving into a new house which takes up a LOT of time, and any down time I have i've been playing stardew lol. i just don't have the brain power to be doing a lot of reading right now. but i'm still gonna do a quick update of what i've been reading and how i'm liking it

Babel by R.F. Kuang

i WISH i could be reading this book, but i haven't found it since moving yet. it's somewhere in the house, i know it, but i've lost track of where it is in the chaos of moving TT-TT i've been really enjoying this book, it's so compeling and well written, and I really love the characters. i'm just under halfway through this book so far, and it's definitley a bit of a heavy read. it has a lot to say about racism and imperialism and how translation can be a tool of the opressor. as soon as i find this book again i really wan tto dive back in and hopefully finish it before the end of the year. it's one of those books that i've been taking my sweet time with, because it deserves that and also because it's a big book that requires i pay real attention lmao. i hope i find it again soon.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchet

i started reading the discworld books! this is the first one i'm reading, and i'm listening to it on audio book. my plan is to listen to them all while crafting, because i need something to listen to! i've been enjoying this one. it's been a while since i've read a good ol' episodic fantasy novel like this. it's real interesting and i have no idea where it's going or where it'll end up. it's a real fun read! the characters are fun and i'm enjoying their funny little journey, just doing stuff. the world is, i think, really the focus here, it's really fun to read about. it's just... pretty goofy and fun and i'm enjoying exploring it. I just bought a new crochet critters pattern book so i'm probably gonna be making some fun wild monsters, so probably i'll need to be listening to more audio books... so hopefully i'll finish this one before too long!

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

okay, so this is my second attempt to read this. not because it's not a good book, but becouse the first time i went to read this i got it as an ebook from the library, and then my loan ran out before i could finish it, and then the library removed it from their collection so i couldn't take it out again! U-U but i kept thinking about it because, even though i didn't read a lot of it when i had it out from the library the first time, the bit i did read i really liked. so i recently went and bought it as an ebook, and now i'm actually getting through it. this one is supposedly a horror novel, but tbh it's more atmospheric and spooky than actually scary. it takes place in an inn on the thames in like, the 19th century era. the story is winding and meandering, in a way that is reminicent of how a river winds along. I love rivers, and having a story that has a river as the main setting and also, in some sense, a character in itself. it's so beautifully written and i'm really, really enjoying myself reading it.

anyway, let me say a little something about the actual story lol. it starts in an inn on the thames on a cold, early winter night, when a man barges in with his face all smashed up, carrying a drowned little girl. the local nurse is called, she stitches up the man, and then she goes to check on the child. who wakes up. everyone agrees she was definitley dead when she first arrived, but now she's alive. the story reaches out in all directions, finding a few people who believe they know who the girl is and they all start coming together. The ways all the characters lives are tied up together is really interesting, and i'm really excited to see how it all turns out. there's so much going on and it's so great to read.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

this is the newest book by my favourite writer on nature, spirituality and science. Robin Wall Kimmerer is an indigenous scientist and her books blend both ways of knowing and understanding the natural world around us. her book Braiding Sweetgrass genuinly changed my life a little. I just started reading The Serviceberry, so i'm not very far into it. it's a real short little book though, so i anticipate finishing it before too long. this one seems so far to be about apreciating the gifts that nature has to give us, which is so my shit. it's so beautifully written and there are gorgeous illustrations throughout as well. i didn't even know this book was coming out until i saw it in my friends indie bookstore and instantly zeroed in on it. i'm so thrilled to be able to read it!!! i might manage to actually finish this one before november ends lol

Fae's top smut book recs

October 30, 2024

when i was thinking about what i wanted to post about first in this reading journal, i kept coming back to some of the, frankly, incredible smut books i've read this year, and wanting to yap about them on the internet. and maybe it's not the most high-brow subject i could start out on, but hey, i'm out here living my truth. i also thought that maybe, it being Halloween and all, i should write about something more spooky, but most of these are going to be monster love, so i think that about covers that.

first i wanna speak to the subject of smut books in general, but just a little before we get to the really fun stuff. i get that smut, and especially monster smut, isn't for everyone. that's totally fair, not everyone enjoys reading about or engaging with that kind of thing, and no one should be forced to read smut or shamed for not wanting to. but for the people who do like it, smut books create a unique way of engaging with sexual themes that could not possibly be non-consensual. the only real people involved when reading something smutty is you reading it and the person who wrote it, and if either party was to revoke consent at any time the experience would simply stop. if a book makes you uncomfortable you can put it down, and if the author wasn't comfortable writing what they were they would stop. and this makes it a completley safe way to engage with kinks and risky behaviour. that's part of why i like smut books. there are some kinks that i honestly wouldn't want to engage with in real life, but i still like to read about them and engage with them that way.

anyway, with that out of the way, i'm gonna jump right into talking about some of the filthiest, funnest books i read this year.

Initiation by Alethea Faust

this is the first book in a series called "Sex Wizards." need i say more? well too bad because i'm going to. this series features a magic system where spells are made through kinky sex acts. to get a sheilding spell, for example, you tie someone up and bang em. there's some explination that has to do with the expulsion of energy in an orgasm and stuff, but honestly how the magic works isn't really the fun part. the fun part is reading about the casting methods themselves (๑>؂•̀๑)

there's also a great range of diverse characters that i really like, and the emphasis on consent and healthy relationship dynamics throughout the book is really refreshing. every chapter starts with a hint as to what kind of ~magic~ will be cast in the chapter, and any chapter that could be more intense or troubling also has a content warning. and the way the characters interact is so good, like they really care about each other and their mental health and also they enjoy dicking the shit out of each other.

i've really enjoyed this entire series and i highly recomend them. the fourth book just came out and i've been reading it recently, and whooo boy is it a fun ride. i should probably mention that there's a plot to these books too, there's an evil wizard to defeat after all. i should mention, an evil wizard in a world where wizards make magic by having sex is.... predictably horrible. but i really think the darker, more intense aspects of the story are handled well and the rest of it is so fun that it really balances out in my opinion. obviously, like any book like this, these books are not for everyone. read the warnings, take care of yourself, and if you think you'd enjoy a book like this i'm going to tell you that you probably will.

Claimed by the Cthulhu by Wendi Gogh

okay. this book. i don't even know how to begin to explain what happens in this book. the story on this one gets so WEIRD in so many fun ways, and whooooo boy is it a ride worth going on. it takes place in a world where Cthulhus and other monsters are everyday members of society, like a lot of monster love worlds, and i'm always a fan of that. the characters are fun and the romance may be het but at no point is there traditional p-in-v sex happening. the sex in this book is actually,,,,, incredibly absurd. let me explain by telling you about the first chapter.

so Cthulhus in this world have a mating season, where they all meet on an island in the middle of the ocean for a three-day fuckfest. they can't avoid it. which sucks for our main man because he hates being obliged to bang someone he's not in love with. every year he meets up to mate with this female Cthulhu who also hates breeding season because she's a lesbian. the year this story starts she finds the main man on this fuck island, pulls him into a cave, and shows that she's brought her medusa girlfriend this year, which is super against the rules. but main guy is a gentleman, so he decides to help them.

by pulling off his dick and giving it to the medusa to use like a strap-on.

turns out a perk of Cthulhu biology is that their dicks pop off and can suction cup onto other surfaces. and when main guy puts his dick back on after the medusa used it, his breeding urge is satisfied because his dick has a kind of brain of its own. this removable-dick thing leads to all kinds of hilarious situations throughout the book, which i loved every second of. it's a dual pov book that flips back and forth between human woman love interest and Cthulhu man, who btw is a doctor, and at one point he's doing a tense medical proceedure while his gf is... pleasuring herself. for several chapters it flips back and forth between two VERY different vibes and tbh i got whiplash and it was SO fun! i'm not going to spoil all the rest of the crazy shit that happens in this book but trust that it is one of the most fun trips i've ever taken.

Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta

at this point this book has got so much attention for being ~weird~ because she ~milks a minotaur~ that it feels almost cheap to put it on this list, but genuinly i really enjoyed this book. it's so silly and the fact that milking minotaur men is her day job and quickly becomes boring for her is so funny to me. so yeah, maybe this is a cliche pick, but i think it's fun. i love a wholesome monster love book series!

which brings me to the real reason i included this book on this list: i think the whole series is really fun. the second book features a mothman, and the third one??? a werewolf breeding clinic??? fantastic premise. there are some more books in the series that i haven't read, because honestly i got kind of wore out of monster love books where the man is the monster, but i'm sure i'll go back to them soon because they're really fun and cute. i think part of the reason this one got so big is because it's a really good intro to monster love. bizzare premise, wholesome vibes, and hot as hell sex scenes. if you're curious about monster love and you wanna dip your toe in, i'd reccomend this for sure.

those are my top three recs right now, but next year my goal is to read more gay and lesbian monster love, and especially books where the woman is the monster. tbh i'd love to read some books where the woman is a monster and her male love interest is the hapless human, but idk if that even exists. if anyone knows any books like that, or has recs in general, please let me know!! and if you read any of these books based on my recomendation i also wan to know!! happy reading!