Storyteller

Professional storyteller and author from Hungary. Into folklore, mythology, queer literature, and nonfiction reading challenges.

14535 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson

Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue

Reading...

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

10%

Beyond Nine Forests: Tales of Hidden Bulgaria

35%

13%

The Goddess in Crete: A guide to 100 Minoan and other sites

A Mine of Her Own: Women Prospectors in the American West, 1850-1950

Pagan Planet: Being, Believing & Belonging in the 21 Century

18%

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

20%

The Island of Zeus: Wanderings In Crete

18%

Storyteller made progress on...

13h

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Nghi Vo

10%

Storyteller started reading...

13h

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

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23h

lurantis

Thoughts from 29%

i was listening to this on my walk today and i really started to notice all of the moss around me that i usually wouldn’t pay attention to

Storyteller commented on a post

23h

thehopefulromantic

Thoughts from 23%

“Competition in a family decreases everyone's potential success. So evolution favors specialization, avoiding competition, and thus increasing the survival of the species.”

Such a strikingly simple concept, and yet…

Storyteller commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

23h

mimi_reads

Upcoming release excitement?

Are there any upcoming books you’re particularly looking forward to? Yes, I’m going to mine the comments for recs.

I can’t wait for Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new memoir (in two days) and also for Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee because if you put “language” and “fantasy” in the description I’m sat.

Storyteller commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

artsietango

Free Comic Book Day! (USA)

Happy free comic book day everyone! Does anyone have plans to go snag some free comics? I spent yesterday calling shops around me and making sure they were participating. Today I will be hitting 5 different places!

If you're not going to get free comics, no worries! This is actually the first year I've been able to participate again. Last time I did this was probably high school.

And finally, is there a favorite comic book that you have? Drop it below! I could always use new recs. 😁 My favorites are Giant Days and the Lumberjanes series.

Storyteller wrote a review...

Storyteller

May 03, 2026

4.0

Enjoyment: Quality: 5.0Characters: Plot:

💣

💔

👂

The whole thing was beautifully written and very hard to read, but it was the last poem that punched me in the gut

Storyteller finished a book

Deaf Republic

Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky's astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence?Deaf Republic opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear--they all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya's girls, heroically teaching signing by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea, Ilya Kaminsky's long-awaited Deaf Republic confronts our time's vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them. Finalist for the T. S. Eliot PrizeFinalist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection

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Deaf Republic

Ilya Kaminsky

100%

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Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert

Bob the Drag Queen

From RuPaul’s Drag Race winner and host of HBO’s We’re Here comes an inventive, wondrous novel about American hero Harriet Tubman that remixes history into a fresh, dynamic novel about love, freedom, salvation, and music. In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say. Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way—by following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Harriet wants to put on a show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her. She calls upon Darnell Williams, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed by a rival at the BET Awards. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps into the studio with Harriet, only that they have one week to write a Broadway caliber musical she can take on the road. Over the course of their time together, they not only mount a show that will take the country by storm, but confront the horrors of both their pasts, and learn to find a way to a better future. Original, evocative, and historic, Harriet Live in Concert is a landmark achievement that will burrow deep into our hearts (and ears).

Storyteller commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

HyperfixKate

May TBR Hopefuls! 🌷🦋✨

Hi everyone, and happy May!! I am curious, what is everyone's most anticipated read for May if you have a May TBR?

I'll go first, I'm so excited to finally start the Hunger Games series as I've seen the main four movies, but have never read the books! I'm trying to catch up before the new movie releases in November 🙂‍↕️

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Märchen 2: Erzählungen aus Schlesien (German Edition)

Hans-Manfred Milde

Auch in diesem Märchenbuch 2 finden Märchen und Geschichten aus uralten Zeiten ihren Platz. Ob über- oder untertage, ob hoch in einem der schlesischen Gebirge, ob in den Weiten der Ebenen rechts und links der Oder, überall im Schlesierland geschahen Dinge, die die Menschen verwunderten; manchmal flößten sie ihnen Angst ein, mitunter brachten sie die Geschehnisse aber auch zum Lachen. Könige, Fürsten und Ritter wohnten in Schlössern und Burgen; es lebte aber auch einmal eine Prinzessin, die so hässlich war, dass kein Prinz um sie freien wollte. Nicht anders war das Leben der einfachen Leute. Auch unter ihnen gab es leißige und faule, ehrliche und Betrüger, traurige und glückliche. Oft waren es Tiere, die traurigen oder verzweifelten Menschen zu Hilfe kamen - echte Tiere - manchmal aber auch solche, die von einem Zauberstab berührt worden waren und auf ihre Befreiung warteten. Im Schlesischen ließ es sich gut leben - denn Rübezahl wachte von der Koppe herab und mischte sich ein, wenn es die Menschen zu arg trieben. Wer heute an Schlesien denkt, dem fallen wohl zuerst die drei Worte ein, die allen Märchen voran Es war einmal...

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Be the Sea

Clara Ward

In November 2039, marine scientist Wend Taylor heaves themself aboard a zero-emissions boat skippered by elusive nature photographer Viola Yang. Guided by instinct, ocean dreams, and a shared birthday in 1972, they barter stories for passage across the Pacific. Aljon, Viola’s younger cousin, keeps a watchful eye and an innovative galley. Story by story, the trio rethink secrets, flying dreams, and how they experience their own minds. When they reach Hawaiʻi and prepare to part ways, opportunity and mystery pull them closer together. Both scientific and personal discoveries take shape as they join with ex-lovers, lost friends, and found family. Wend must navigate an ever-shifting future, complicated by bioengineered microbes and a plot to silence scientists, entangled with inexplicable dreams and a calling to Be the Sea.

Storyteller wrote a review...

Storyteller

May 02, 2026

4.5

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

🎶

🏳️‍🌈

🎤

I did not expect to devour this book as quickly as I did. This is a new genre. I don't know what to call it so I'm gonna call it "living biography". It's not just the story of someone's (Tubman's) life, but rather the story of a contemporary Black queer artist engaging with her, and with many other ancestors whose names are given back. It reminded me of the Marsha biography, written by a Black trans woman. I could read a lot more books like this. There is something deep and endearing in the conversation between past and present, told with humor and empathy. Occasionally, parts seemed a bit out of place when characters from the 1800s said things like "It's in our DNA", but honestly the book was so likable I let those slide. The most important takeaway: this book needs to become an actual musical. The only problem I had with it was I could see how much the music would add to the whole experience. I think Bob imagined it as a musical from the get go, and a book is a vehicle for that. I hope they get to make it.

Storyteller finished a book

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert

Bob the Drag Queen

Storyteller is interested in reading...

Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present

Erin L. Thompson

Whether it's the discovery of $1.6 billion in Nazi-looted art or the news that Syrian rebels are looting UNESCO archaeological sites to buy arms, art crime commands headlines. Erin Thompson, America's only professor of art crime, explores the dark history of looting, smuggling, and forgery that lies at the heart of many private art collections and many of the world's most renowned museums. Enlivened by fascinating personalities and scandalous events, Possession shows how collecting antiquities has been a way of creating identity, informed by a desire to annex the past while providing an illicit thrill along the way. Thompson's accounts of history's most infamous collectors—from the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who stole a life-sized nude Greek statue for his bedroom, to Queen Christina of Sweden, who habitually pilfered small antiquities from her fellow aristocrats, to Sir William Hamilton, who forced his mistress to enact poses from his collection of Greek vases—are as mesmerizing as they are revealing.

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ruiconteur

Edited

Thoughts from 20% (chapter 2)

“a brown carp cleared the final gate of the city’s dams and became a calico dragon.”

this is a really interesting story in chinese mythology!! the story goes that when yu the great was regulating the flow of rivers and watercourses, he cleaved apart the mountains with an axe, creating what's known today as the jinshaan gorge between shaanxi and shanxi, which is the narrowest part of the yellow river. but what he didn't know was that the carp in the yellow river were swept downwards with the new currents that were created, and were unable to return to their home upriver.

these carp then went to tushan jiao, the wife of yu the great, and begged her to help them; upon hearing their plea, she pointed out the breach in the gorge to them, and told them that if they could leap across the breach, they would transform into dragons and ascend into the heavens. as promised, those who succeeded turned into dragons, but those who didn't were marked with a black scar on their heads. that's how the story of 鲤跃龙门/鲤鱼跳龙门 / the carp leaping over the dragon gate became an idiom to describe rapid advances in one's career and/or accomplishments.

fun fact: in journey to the west, 龙肝凤胆 / dragon liver and phoenix gall is a popular dish at the jade emperor's many banquets. this is a dish that, in the real world, is usually made with carp 😂

edit: forgot to link the videos i found!! here's one of a swarm of carp trying to swim upriver, and another higher-quality video here of a single carp and the butterfly that pointed the way for it

Storyteller commented on violet.booklover's update

violet.booklover TBR'd a book