brightsword

Librarian with a taste for romance and speculative fiction.

120 points

0% overlap

Reading...

How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

My Taste

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)

The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe, #1)

Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecelia and Kate, #1)

brightsword wants to read...

One of Us Knows

Alyssa Cole

From the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author of When No One Is Watching comes a riveting thriller about the new caretaker of a historic estate who finds herself trapped on an island with a murderer—and the ghosts of her past. Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity. Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect. Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.

brightsword finished reading and wrote a review...

brightsword

Apr 19, 2025

3.5

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

☀️

🔥

⚔️

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read Rhythm of War beforehand. As it is, I really enjoyed the characters of Rebeke and Elegy and all the Beaconites, but I was very confused about what was going on with Nomad's backstory and Auxiliary.

brightsword earned a badge

Brandon Sanderson Universes

Gold: Finished 15 Main Quest books.

brightsword commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

13h

mahatma

Edited

What draws you towards romance as a genre?

Might be an odd or highly personal question but I have always wondered if the urge to read romance novels disappears when one is married/dating? So for romance readers, I was wondering if it is escapist fantasy reading or is it like all other genres just a preferred taste in entertainment. Essentially, why do you think you feel an inclination for the genre and is it impacted by the phase of life that you are in?

brightsword commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

13h

wildestfire

What made you a reader?

What got you into a reading? And also, what got you back into reading if you stopped in the middle. When I try to think about myself, I think I always been a reader, if not of books. I always enjoyed reading newspaper articles. My first language is Urdu and second is Arabic so whenever we would get newspapers of each language, I would read them out loud. At that time, I believe I was eight or nine. Then my grandmother began to subscribe to children's magazine so I could read them alongside her. I was also into comics a lot, but I mostly chose them in Arabic as I was enrolled into an Arabic school. Then I watched Twilight, and I was so intrigued by the movie. As any normal fan, I researched everything i can about the book and found out that it is actually based on books and so I went to get the second book. However, I soon discovered Wattpad and it was all I ever read for a while. After a year of no reading at all, I ended up reading The Metamorphic by Franz Kafka in 2021 and cried my eyes out. It made me rediscover my love for reading and I have not stopped since.

brightsword wants to read...

13h

Bourbon & Lies (Foxx Bourbon Boys, #1)

Victoria Wilder

In Fiasco, Kentucky, there is one rule: never fall for a Foxx brother. Any woman who did, ended up dead—or so the rumor goes. Townies call it a curse. But I’ve lived it, and I won’t survive it again. I’m not a cop anymore, but I’ve seen enough danger to know that Laney Young, the beautiful stranger who just showed up in my small town, is running from it. She’s lying about where she came from and what she’s doing here. I don’t want her near my family or the quiet life I’ve made for myself. But my brothers have other plans. Now she’s everywhere–working at my distillery, living in our guest house, calling me ‘cowboy’ and skinny-dipping in my horse trough. But it’s the way she dishes out attitude from that pretty mouth of hers that has me wanting things I’ve sworn to myself I’d never want again. I should push her away, forget how her lips taste, and ignore how she makes me want more out of life again. When her past shows up and mingles too closely with mine, her lies begin to unravel. The rules don’t matter anymore. I mess up, dig too far, and get too close. Only two things have the power to keep her safe now: bourbon and lies.

brightsword paused reading...

14h

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples

Linda Tuhiwai Smith

From the vantage point of the colonized, the term 'research' is inextricably linked with European colonialism; the ways in which scientific research has been implicated in the worst excesses of imperialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples. Here, an indigenous researcher issues a clarion call for the decolonization of research methods.The book is divided into two parts. In the first, the author critically examines the historical and philosophical base of Western research. Extending the work of Foucault, she explores the intersections of imperialism, knowledge and research, and the different ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and methodologies as 'regimes of truth'. Providing a history of knowledge from the Enlightenment to Postcoloniality, she also discusses the fate of concepts such as 'discovery, 'claiming' and 'naming' through which the west has incorporated and continues to incorporate the indigenous world within its own web.The second part of the book meets the urgent need for people who are carrying out their own research projects, for literature which validates their frustrations in dealing with various western paradigms, academic traditions and methodologies, which continue to position the indigenous as 'Other'. In setting an agenda for planning and implementing indigenous research, the author shows how such programmes are part of the wider project of reclaiming control over indigenous ways of knowing and being.Exploring the broad range of issues which have confronted, and continue to confront, indigenous peoples, in their encounters with western knowledge, this book also sets a standard for truly emancipatory research. It brilliantly demonstrates that "when indigenous peoples become the researchers and not merely the researched, the activity of research is transformed."

brightsword finished reading and left a rating...

17h

DNF

brightsword

Apr 18, 2025

DNF

3.0

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

brightsword DNF'd a book

17h

My Fake Rake (Union of the Rakes, #1)

Eva Leigh

In the first book in Eva Leigh's new Union of the Rakes series, a bluestocking hires a faux suitor to help her land an ideal husband only to be blindsided by real desire… Lady Grace Wyatt is content as a wallflower, focusing on scientific pursuits rather than the complications of society matches. But when a handsome, celebrated naturalist returns from abroad, Grace wishes, for once, to be noticed. Her solution: to "build" the perfect man, who will court her publicly and help her catch his eye. Grace's colleague, anthropologist Sebastian Holloway, is just the blank slate she requires. In exchange for funding his passage on an expedition leaving London in a few months, Sebastian allows Grace to transform him from a bespectacled, bookish academic into a dashing—albeit fake—rake. Between secret lessons on how to be a rogue and exaggerated public flirtations, Grace's feelings for Sebastian grow from friendship into undeniable, inconvenient, real attraction. If only she hadn't hired him to help her marry someone else... Sebastian is in love with brilliant, beautiful Grace, but their bargain is complete, and she desires another. Yet when he's faced with losing her forever, Sebastian will do whatever it takes to tell her the truth, even if it means risking his own future—and his heart.

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Level 2

100 points

brightsword commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

sailorsoftgirl

Hello fellow library people!

Any other library staff here? I'm currently working at my local library and starting my MLIS in the fall, so it would be awesome to connect with others working in the field.

brightsword started reading...

How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

Paul J. Silvia

All academics need to write, but many struggle to finish their dissertations, articles, books, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. How can we write it all while still having a life? In this second edition of his popular guidebook, Paul Silvia offers fresh advice to help you overcome barriers to writing and use your time more productively. After addressing some common excuses and bad habits, he provides practical strategies to motivate students, professors, researchers, and other academics to become better and more prolific writers. Silvia draws from his own experience in psychology to explain how to write, submit, and revise academic work, from journal articles to books, all without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and vacations. The tips and strategies in this second edition have been updated to apply to academic writing in most disciplines. Also new to this edition is a chapter on writing grant and fellowship proposals.

brightsword DNF'd a book

Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City

Paul Strathern

By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As generous patrons to the likes of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the ruling Medici embodied the progressive humanist spirit of the age, and in Lorenzo the Magnificent they possessed a diplomat capable of guarding the militarily weak city in a climate of constantly shifting allegiances between the major Italian powers.However, in the form of Savonarola, an unprepossessing provincial monk, Lorenzo found his nemesis. Filled with Old Testament fury and prophecies of doom, Savonarola's sermons reverberated among a disenfranchised population, who preferred medieval Biblical certainties to the philosophical interrogations and intoxicating surface glitter of the Renaissance. Savonarola's aim was to establish a 'City of God' for his followers, a new kind of democratic state, the likes of which the world had never seen before.The battle which this provoked would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events - invasions, trials by fire, the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', terrible executions and mysterious deaths - featuring a cast of the most important and charismatic Renaissance figures.This famous struggle has often been portrayed as a simple clash of wills between a benign ruler and religious fanatic, between secular pluralism and repressive extremism. However, in an exhilaratingly rich and deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts and political compromises which made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex and important moments in Western history.

brightsword DNF'd a book

Strong Women in Renaissance Italy

Marietta Cambareri

The lives, works and imagery of women artists, patrons and icons in Renaissance Italy The story of the Renaissance in Italy is often told through the work of great male artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo. But what about the female half of the population? By exploring works made by, for, or about women, this book aims to reconsider a period of creative ingenuity and artistic excellence from their often-overlooked perspective. Drawing on the rich collection of paintings, ceramics, textiles, illustrated books and prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this publication focuses on images of feminine power, both sacred and secular, telling the stories of saints such as Mary Magdalen as examples of strength and ascetic devotion, Biblical heroines such as Judith as civic and domestic role models, and the mythical sorceress Medea as the ideal of a heroic nude. Women also asserted their presence as artists, artisans and Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Vittoria Colonna, Isabella d’Este and Eleonora Gonzaga are just some of the strong women who shaped the life and art of the Italian Renaissance.

brightsword DNF'd a book

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence, #1)

Emma Mieko Candon

War machines and AI gods run amok in The Archive Undying, national bestseller Emma Mieko Candon's bold entry into the world of mecha fiction. WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines. The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies. Come get in the robot.

brightsword DNF'd a book

Come As You Are (Bluebird Basin, #1)

Jess K. Hardy

He’ll win her heart one mixtape at a time. 46-year-old Ashley Cooke will do just about anything to save her struggling ski hill. When she hires the men from a local sober living home for the season to cut costs, even she thinks she’s gone too far. With her credit cards maxed, her cheating ex-husband intent on buying the mountain out from under her, and record-breaking snow in the forecast, she can’t afford to be distracted by the six-foot-tall bearded and tattooed sober living home owner moving onto her mountain. 53-year-old recovering addict and ex-grunge rocker Matthew Madigan has devoted every minute of the last decade to the men residing at his sober living home. When he meets tightly wound and adorably flustered Ashley, desires he’s put on the back burner for years start to simmer. Immune to his infamous albeit rusty charm, Ashley presents a challenge he can’t resist. When she offers to give him skiing lessons in exchange for his help training her St. Bernard rescue dog, he jumps at the chance to ride next to her on the chairlift despite his debilitating fear of heights. During bunny hill shenanigans, chairlift confessions, and steamy cabin serenades, Madigan teaches Ashley that a person’s past doesn’t define them, and Ashley shows Madigan that the men he helps aren’t the only people who deserve a second chance. When sabotage threatens both the men and the mountain, Ashley and Madigan will have to decide if they’re only having a winter fling, or if the mountain isn’t the only thing worth fighting for. Content Notes: Addiction, divorce, mourning loss of parent

brightsword commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

Devin

Edited

Tell me a little more about yourself

I'm really interested in learning more about the awesome folks I've connected with on pagebound so far. I've interacted with many of you, and while we usually stick to books because it's a common love we all share, but I realized I only know a little about each of you through those conversations. That is totally fine if that is how you'd like to keep things, so no pressure to answer 😊. A little more personally about me: I'm a father (mid 30s) of 2 beautiful little girls (3.5 years and 7 months), married to an amazing woman and mother, and we also have 2 French bulldogs 😊. I'm currently a software engineer and my primary focus is infrastructure (all the boring stuff that websites like pagebound runs on behind the scenes and serves it all over the world), but I also freelance in web development still since it's where I got my start. Fun random fact: I was top 500 in overwatch season 3 🤣 Super happy to have met everyone and will hopefully continue to meet as this community grows 😊 Please don't forget to practice good internet safety when answering! 🫣

272

brightsword set their yearly reading goal to 52

brightsword's 2025 Reading Challenge

16 of 52 read

A PhD Rollercoaster: A Diary of The Ups And Downs of Being a Doctoral Student

The Duchess Hunt (Once Upon a Dukedom, #2)

An Unexpected Peril (Veronica Speedwell, #6)

The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

brightsword wants to read...

The Harpy and the Dragon (Hearts of Blackmere, #4)

Marie Lipscomb

When feisty chambermaid Annora is imprisoned in a dungeon for striking her noble lord and master, she wastes no time in formulating a plan to escape. Unfortunately, that plan involves bringing her odious, yet undeniably handsome fellow prisoner, Henry Percille, along with her. Before long, desire overcomes irritation and the cracks in Henry’s armor begin to expose the man he truly is. He may be a monster, but it would take nothing less to tempt her. Henry Percille, the disgraced champion once known as the Dragon, sat in a dungeon for ten years, haunted by his crimes. But when a foul-tempered chambermaid is thrown into the opposite cell, he finds not only freedom, but also his match. Annora is beautiful, grumpy, and vicious, yet he can’t seem to convince himself to be rid of her no matter how hard he tries. When danger closes in, Henry becomes all that stands between her and the nobleman who wants them both dead. He must choose between vengeance or his glorious harpy- the woman he burns for. *** The Harpy and the Dragon is the 4th book in the Hearts of Blackmere series but can be read as a standalone. There is a summary of the events of the first three books in the front matter for your convenience. This book is an enemies to lovers morality chain story and both of the main characters are on the darker end of the morality scale. For content guidance please visit the author's website.

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Fictional books that feel like a warm hug, featuring magic and whimsy and perfectly happy endings. These are lower on stakes and higher on good vibes!

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