amber.

linguistics undergrad student and lover of unreliable narrators🍉

3495 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)

amber. is interested in reading...

Bat Eater

Kylie Lee Baker

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don't bother her, not when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater. Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women. Soon Cora will learn: you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.

amber. is interested in reading...

Mortal Follies

Alexis Hall

A young noblewoman must pair up with a rumoured witch to ward off a curse. It is the year 1814 and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers. Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape. However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if it means mixing with undesirable company. And there are few less desirable than Lady Georgianna Landrake—a brooding, alluring young woman sardonically nicknamed “the Duke of Annadale”—who may or may not have murdered her own father and brothers to inherit their fortune. If one is to believe the gossip, she might be some kind of malign enchantress. Then again, a malign enchantress might be exactly what Miss Mitchelmore needs. With the Duke’s help, Miss Mitchelmore delves into a world of angry gods and vindictive magic, keen to unmask the perpetrator of these otherworldly attacks. But Miss Mitchelmore’s reputation is not the only thing at risk in spending time with her new ally. For the rumoured witch has her own secrets that may prove dangerous to Miss Mitchelmore’s heart—not to mention her life.

amber. is interested in reading...

Who Wants to Live Forever

Hanna Thomas Uose

What happens to loving each other forever when your soulmate decides living forever is more important?Yuki and Sam are soulmates.They are destined to spend the rest of their lives together.They are supposed to love one another, forever.But when a miracle drug is created which can extend a human's life, indefinitely, Sam decides to live forever, rather than love Yuki forever.What comes next is a time-bending, decades-long, world-building epic set across the globe and narrated by an intersecting cast of characters. Who Wants to Live Forever is the greatest romance you will ever read without the happily ever after.

amber. is interested in reading...

Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much

Jen Winston

Named one of the Best Books of 2021 by Oprah Daily , Glamour, Shondaland , BuzzFeed , and more! A hilarious and whip-smart collection of essays, offering an intimate look at bisexuality, gender, and, of course, sex. Perfect for fans of Lindy West, Samantha Irby, and Rebecca Solnit—and anyone who wants, and deserves, to be seen. If Jen Winston knows one thing for sure, it’s that she’s bisexual. Or wait—maybe she isn’t? Actually, she definitely is. Unless…she’s not? Jen’s provocative, laugh-out-loud debut takes us inside her journey of self-discovery, leading us through stories of a childhood “girl crush,” an onerous quest to have a threesome, and an enduring fear of being bad at sex. Greedy follows Jen’s attempts to make sense of herself as she explores the role of the male gaze, what it means to be “queer enough,” and how to overcome bi stereotypes when you’re the posterchild for all of greedy, slutty, and constantly confused. With her clever voice and clear-eyed insight, Jen draws on personal experiences with sexism and biphobia to understand how we all can and must do better. She sheds light on the reasons women, queer people, and other marginalized groups tend to make ourselves smaller, provoking the What would happen if we suddenly stopped? Greedy shows us that being bisexual is about so much more than who you’re sleeping with—it’s about finding stability in a state of flux and defining yourself on your own terms. This book inspires us to rethink the world as we know it, reminding us that Greedy was a superpower all along.

amber. is interested in reading...

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and works on Wall Street. He is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.

amber. commented on a List

speak weird (dirty) to me

by amber.

11 books

books about weirdos. most of these are psychological thrillers or have controversial themes!

😟

👎

🥴

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Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

Emily Nagoski

This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men—and provides a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions, and live a more joyful life. Burnout. Many women in America have experienced it. What’s expected of women and what it’s really like to be a woman in today’s world are two very different things—and women exhaust themselves trying to close the gap between them. How can you “love your body” when every magazine cover has ten diet tips for becoming “your best self”? How do you “lean in” at work when you’re already operating at 110 percent and aren’t recognized for it? How can you live happily and healthily in a sexist world that is constantly telling you you’re too fat, too needy, too noisy, and too selfish? Sisters Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, are here to help end the cycle of feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Instead of asking us to ignore the very real obstacles and societal pressures that stand between women and well-being, they explain with compassion and optimism what we’re up against—and show us how to fight back. In these pages you’ll learn • what you can do to complete the biological stress cycle—and return your body to a state of relaxation • how to manage the “monitor” in your brain that regulates the emotion of frustration • how the Bikini Industrial Complex makes it difficult for women to love their bodies—and how to defend yourself against it • why rest, human connection, and befriending your inner critic are keys to recovering and preventing burnout With the help of eye-opening science, prescriptive advice, and helpful worksheets and exercises, all women will find something transformative in these pages—and will be empowered to create positive change. Emily and Amelia aren’t here to preach the broad platitudes of expensive self-care or insist that we strive for the impossible goal of “having it all.” Instead, they tell us that we are enough, just as we are—and that wellness, true wellness, is within our reach.

amber. is interested in reading...

The Burnout

Sophie Kinsella

Sasha has had it. She cannot bring herself to respond to another inane, “urgent” (but obviously not at all urgent) email or participate in the corporate employee joyfulness program. She hasn’t seen her friends in months. Sex? Seems like a lot of effort. Even cooking dinner takes far too much planning. Sasha has hit a wall. Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout ( manifesting, wild swimming; drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach). When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion—signify?

amber. commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

buttercheese69

Edited

Choose a side

Which side of the spectrum do you belong to--the 'anybody who reads a lot of spice/smut should atp call it 🌽 addiction' or 'We should let people read whatever they want because barely anybody picks up a book these days.'?

Also context, I saw two of these opinions on the same YouTube video, which is why I'm posing these specific questions. As for me, I do not care what people are reading as long as they are reading (I say this because around me, I've noticed such a lack of reading that I just wish somebody picks up a book) because books genuinely provide a lot of political and general knowledge along with empathy. Moreover, whatever you read should not be on a pedestal to judge and scrutinise, like who is one single person to determine how wrong or right another single person is? Unless the book is specifically normalizing SA, I do not care.

amber. commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

amber.

what book did you read at school that left a lasting impact on you?

for me it has to be Othello by William Shakespeare or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote! when i first read them in class i hadn't read anything similar before, so i found myself very drawn to the new narrative styles they used!! their characters are full of deceit and had a great deal of flaws that i still find myself attracted to in books now!

amber. is interested in reading...

Walking Practice

Dolki Min

Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien's hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human. After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth's gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious. Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey's sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien's existence begins to unravel one night when they fail to kill their latest meal. Thrust into an ill-fated chase across the city, the alien is confronted with the psychological and physical tolls their experience on Earth has taken. Questioning what they must do to sustain their own survival, they begin to understand why humans also fight to live. But their hunger is insatiable, and the alien once again targets a new prey, not knowing what awaits. . . . Dolki Min's haunting debut novel is part psychological thriller, part searing critique of the social structures that marginalize those who are different--the disabled, queer, and nonconformist. Walking Practice uncovers humanity in who we consider to be alien, and illuminates how alienation can shape the human experience. Walking Practice features 21 black-and-white line drawings throughout. Translated from the Korean by Victoria Caudle

amber. commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

MackCheese14

What’s a “good reading day” to u?

Today’s been the best reading day in a while. I woke up, made myself a fancy little coffee, got a bunch of snacks, put on my blanket hoodie, put on some fireplace noises, and have been reading for HOURS!!! I am thrilled! There’s also another snow squall warning (I live in Canada and we’ve had 5 snow squalls this month already) so I am eating up my Christmas book bc all the winter vibes!!

My questions for u are what was ur best reading day? What made it the best? And what does ur ideal reading day look like?

amber. commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

readbyrebekah

Edited

Winter Readalong - what will you pick?

Firstly i think the 2026 one is bugged as it says that 2025 has already happened, and that 2026 is up next…

Secondly, i plan on reading Emily Wilde! i’ve been meaning to for ages and now i finally have a reason. but if it remains bugged, and 2026 is up next then im not sure what ill pick as nothing seems too interesting. maybe A Wizards guide to Defensive Baking?

eta; yes i know many people have pointed out that its not a bug, but i found it very confusing 😅. i probably wont participate this year as theres just other things id rather read on my very long tbr (mine is physical, so if it doesn’t fit on my shelf then im not allowing myself to buy a copy to put it there). if they spanned more genres or had more options that would’ve been great, but i also sometimes like how concise they all are and limiting your choices

for me: i don’t read classics- they’ve never agreed with me. i like romance in moderation and im already planning on reading two in december, i don’t read adult fiction, and the last pick sounds okay, but not something id jump on.

i’ll ready emily wilde next year or in spring, but i love that everyone is excited for this winter!

amber. is interested in reading...

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

amber. made progress on...

Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)

Brynne Weaver

52%

amber. started reading...

Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)

Brynne Weaver

Contract killer Lachlan Kane wants a quiet life working in his leather studio and forgetting all about his traumatic past. But when he botches a job for his boss’s biggest client, Lachlan knows he’ll never claw his way out of the underworld. At least, not until songbird Lark Montague offers him a deal: use his skills to hunt down a killer and she’ll find a way to secure his freedom. The catch? He has to marry her first. And they can’t stand each other. Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be. As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomes impossible to discern their fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them. There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep. And this one has come for blood.

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Found Family in Fantasy 🏡⚔️🫶🏽

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Outcasts, rebels, and misfits unite in magical worlds. Here, strangers become chosen family, facing every challenge together and proving that home is found, not given.

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amber.

Thoughts from 5%

“I imagine dipping my pinky toe into her dimple.”

you what??

amber. is interested in reading...