i know we all have a habit of using whatevers around us for holding the place in our books lol, the other day i had to use a pair of scissors and then a hairdryer 😭😭😭 today its nice and simple, a star wars postcard i bought the other day,

this one here!

but yus i would love to hear what everyone else currently using as a bookmark whether its an actual bookmark or a fun little bonus object we just had lying around lmao, this is show and tell time 🙂‍↕️✨️

"He really cares about making the world a more beautiful place."

Honestly I never got the world's obsession with aesthetic beauty. Beauty as currency, beauty as status, beauty as substance. Maybe cause I have never been and will never be considered classically beautiful, I was always even as a child too fat and too tall for that. I don't know if any of you can relate. Aesthetic beauty always felt too shallow, fleeting and non permanent to me. There is to me no value to making the world a more beautiful place. A better one, a more hospitable yes. But beautiful? What is beauty is not a social construct made by the white rich and powerful elite? How can you recognise it if you take all the weird and uncomfortable and ugly of the world? Why is "ugliness"? scary, bad, unwanted? I love when books make me think. This book is excellent so far, I'd love your thoughts!

hi everyone!!! happy disability pride month!

every july, the disabled community comes together to celebrate ourselves and our resilience, honour our histories, and our ongoing struggles and dehumanization we face due to ableism, eugenics, isolation, illness, suicide rates, capitalism and innaccessibility. in honour of the month, i've decided to make lists for each colour of the disability pride flag and teach what each colour represents. i got this idea while bored at work lol.

the disability pride flag:

the disability pride flag was created in 2021 by ann magil. the multiple colours on this flag highlights the various experiences, support needs, and uniqueness of the disabled community. each colour represents one aspect of disability.

a disclaimer: before i present the colours, and lists below, not all books within these lists are OwnVoices, meaning the author shares the same disability as a character in a book. these lists are not exhaustive, but each has both fiction and non-fiction books representing each topic. they are always open to recommendations so please feel free to comment on a list that catches your inspiration. each list will be linked below with the name of the colour in bold. lastly, many books within each list present more than one aspect of disability on the flag, and many disabilities may fit into more than one category (OCD is both a psychiatric disability and neurodivergence, but i kept it within the nd list.).

💚 - our first list is the colour green! it represents sensory disabilities. notably, deafness, blindness/HOH, hearing loss, etc.

💙 - secondly, we have the colour blue/light blue!! this colour highlights psychiatric disabilities and mental illnesses. ex: bipolar disorder, depression, general anxiety disorder, PTSD, etc...

🤍 - thirdly, the colour white represents invisible or undiagnosed disabilities. examples of some of these are ehlers-danlos syndrome, chronic illnesses, MECFS, long covid, fibromyalgia, POTS, ulcerative colitis, IBS, and more.

💛 - the colour yellow is for the multiple conditions that fall under neurodivergency, cognitive and intellectual disabilities. such as autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia/dyspraxia/dyscalculia, down syndrome, tourettes, etc.

❤️ - the last colour in the main "rainbow" is red!! this colour represents all kinds of physical disabilities. wheelchair users, diabetes, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, dwarfism, ALS, arthritis, asthma and polio all fall under this category, as well as many others.

🖤/🩶 - finally, we have the colour(s) black/grey, which shows itself behind the flag's "rainbow." this colour calls on all of us to remember those who we've lost to ableism, suicide, neglect, abuse, assimilation, isolation, illness. as we mourn our fallen comrades, we also protest and rage against the systems that left them for dead, and continue to isolate and dehumanize many.

i really hope that you all enjoy and appreciate these lists i've compiled for all of you! both these lists, and this post, took a long time to write and compile so i'd appreciate it wholeheartedly if you'd all check them out. once again, if you all have any recommendations for books to add/remove, please let me know in each comment section! i hope those of you who didn't know about the disability pride flag have learned something new today!!! thank you all for the love!! bisous (kisses)!!

“At the end of each night, I would kick off my shoes, eat leftovers from the kitchen, and strip the burned skin from my hands. I felt triumphant when I could get a large piece off all at once, like peeling off an opera glove. Months of lightly flaying myself had made the raw skin baby soft, and I sometimes fantasized about submerging my whole body in the sink, shedding everything.”

Oh my god that first sentence made me reflexively frown in disgust holy hell. I love it!!! I think I’m realizing my favoring fkn thing is when the reading metaphor of “sinking your teeth into a good book” becomes visceral through certain imagery!!