Hi - exactly as the title says - seeking some recs and healing from my fellow bookworms! My partner of 6 years, someone who very recently held my hand and said "I love you and I've got you" just broke up with me. I won't go into too many details because it will get long. But it came out of the blue. I thought we were family, he's literally been my best friend. Apparently not.

He's done this to me before and then walked back the statement. It hurt like shit, but I didn't tell anyone last time it happened. This time, I'm taking a different, "it takes a village" kind of approach. I want to get angry, I want to scream, and I want ALL the distractions I can get to heal my broken heart and move on for good. I didn't deserve the way it happened & how he's done this before and watched my world crumple around me along with my confidence. Then watch me build it up again to crush it, like clockwork, a year later.

Please throw any and all recs my way! Anything lift-you-out-of-the-funk, it will get better, build your confidence themes. Men-kinda-suck themes work too (he might be my last male partner, I'm BI). And smut, all the smut. I intend to heal up one page at a time.💔

I often see people complaining about the price of books, but like libraries & second-hand stores exist (Also if you truly can‘t afford books, pirate them, I think art is a human rights and if thats the only way you can enjoy it do it)

Anyway I was recently scrolling ebay and saw someone selling the illustrated edition of the Farseer trilogy for only 50€, anyways I bought them and with shipping I still payed under 60€ (new would‘ve been 90 at least) and they are in peak condition (if I saw them at a bookstore I wouldn‘t blink)

So yeah this is my appreciation post for buying books secondhand, it saves you money and it‘s good for the environment

I searched the club, but couldn't find anything on the topic. I am genuinely curious why do people keep adding books in the same series to community reccs? So many times I opened it excited to see similar books only to be disappointed by it being filled with books from the same series. Especially if the series name is in the title? Is there a reason for this I am unaware of?

I know, this is talked about all the time (or maybe I think it is, because I still can't wrap my head around this), but I'd like some input.

So, I come from a country where homeschooling is illegal, yes, you face repercussions that can end in a jail sentence, on the basis of neglect. The child has to stay in some sort of education until they turn 18. It is far from perfect, and there is still a lot that can be improved up on, which is why I can see where homeschooling can benefit a child: being able to focus on one or a handful of people, being able to chose what you teach and different curricula, getting to set a pace which can benefit your child, but from what I could gather there is really no baseline? Every state seems to have different mandates on what you need to homeschool a child (as a parent or guardian), there don't have to be any tests after a certain amount of time, or no topics that a mandatory? how do you get books? especially if your family isn't well of to invest into supplies? additionally, I feel like socializing your child is important, how would they know who they are, what interests them, what they don't like? I could also see this in Tara's story, when she talked about her and Tyler listening to music together for the first time, she didn't even know if she'd like it and then she became obsessed, besides the fact that she didn't even speak a lot with her brother because of his speech impediment. this also does not factor in the way homeschooling can make abuse easier (and also maybe more likely) to take place, since the child (or children) don't have a way to flee their environment, or worse, they don't even know what is happening to them is wrong. This for me can also be seen in the way their father is forcing the boys to do all this labour intensive, hard work, to the point they are losing fingers. while this may not be factored in as "classical" abuse, it clearly is to me. Tara's brothers weren't even doing it on their own volition (see: Tyler stealing away, so he can get in some sort of education until his father finds him) and all of them eventually leaving the home to pursue their own life. Tara has the problem that she was too young to even get to go to primary/elementary school, she does not know what it is like to be in education and to be educated (her mother had long given up on trying) and a few chapters earlier, when she talked about how her grandmother tried to get her out of it she was (understandably) scared.

I understand that Tara's experiences are unique, and not every homeschooled child feels this way, but I would like some different percpectives, especially if you were homeschooled, or know someone who was? what are your thoughts, are you more pro or against it? what especially benefited you? do you think there could be a nation wide mandate? have parents/guardians do courses before they are able to homeschool? homeschooling groups?

HURRAY! I didn’t bully myself into finishing something I was not really enjoying! I did it guys.

I have notoriously always forced myself to finish even when taking a month long break on a book but today I decided to DNF my first book.

Nothing on the book, I’ve certainly finished worse. It’s just I’m fresh off a whole week of all 5 star reads so it had an incredibly tough start because of that. It’s probably an okay book, just too much romance for me I loveeeee a THICCC plot with a small side of romance.

My next read is said by many to be a 6 star read so I’m excited. Moving on to more enjoyable things (for me) 💚

Do you remember the first book you ever dnfed? Or did your brain block that out 😂

It's fun to look back on stories like this with young protagonists at the start of their adulthood talking about what it means to be grown up. Meanwhile I'm about to hit mid 30s and I never feel like "the adultiest adult" in a room. It's almost like a dunning kruger effect with aging to me - at 18 I also felt like a full grown up in huge part because I wanted to be "perceived" as a full adult now that I was independent and able to take control in my life. But as I've gotten older I am embracing my inner child more than I ever have but also equally embracing my natural grandmother-ish tendencies. Im starting to get the phrase "age is just a number" a lot more haha

[Context: Kaho & Shiho are walking along their path to their old school, reflecting. "Dismayed? Look at you, pulling out the fancy vocabulary.... But anyway, I guess we're all grown up now - at least, mature enough to say things like 'dismayed'."]