hi everyone! i'm going thru lots of changes and preparing for a new chapter in my life, all very good things but its a lot to process. i would love some book recs that explore these themes, and also include qtbipoc characters. they can be nonfiction or fiction. thank you frens :)

the feeling i feel right now is like coming home but home is filled with bittersweet memories that i still can't believe i made it thru, and i'm so grateful to be home but grieving the versions of me that didn't make it here, the other timelines. does anyone relate to that?

-main request: kinda going for bittersweet vibes, grief, aging/growing up, coming of age, some magical realism perhaps -any genre (except high fantasy or romance-centered books) -mg, ya, adult all ok! -similar to: the curse of eelgrass bog, and every morning the way home gets longer and longer -graphic novels and comics welcome -preferably something soothing or comforting, and also prefer audiobooks rn but welcome any format!

I'm writing a BA thesis on Les Misérables (the musical film, sadly, not really the novel) and I'm in a big revolution mood.

Does anyone know any good fiction books about revolutions that follow more closely to the historical revolutions than the typical "group of rebels or the Chosen One save the world from the evil empire" trope? Bonus points if it's queer, fantasy, and based on other revolutions like the Haitian Revolution, the Boxer Rebellion, etc.!! Also a diverse cast would be lovely!!

Here are couple of revolution books/series I already read or am currently reading:

• The Poppy War series
• Les Misérables (obviously)
• Iron Widow
• When We Lost Our Heads
• A Tale of Two Cities
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• The Hunger Games trilogy (incl. the new releases)
• Mistborn trilogy
• Babel
• Dune (shrug if we can count that)

anyone else in an era where you only want to read books community rated above 4? I am finding time to be precious and energy scarce and would really love to be able to sort books based on rating to find what is well written and liked.

edit: I am not saying books under 4 are not worth reading or considering or that people should read only what is trending or overhyped-- that's on them if that's their reading preference. I've loved a lot of books not highly rated on other platforms. The context is I have always read books browsing blindly or by recommendation and now have a energy limiting illness that does not allow me to spare much energy/time toward research or consuming media that is average. I have had to switch to audiobooks and primarily am browsing on my libraries' digital platforms like Libby, meaning I have to search by specific title or else I do just get pages and pages and pages of the most commonly checked out or overhyped books. My TBR is massive but my libraries do not have or do not have the funds to acquire so I am attempting to search from shorter lists of highly recommended books of my taste to see what is available to check out. I currently don't have the budget I used to for book buying because everything is going to medical bills and I have had to pivot to lighter genres because the bulk of what I read before was largely heavy or academic nonfiction which my brain currently cannot handle.

This community is amazing and I have found that people more accurately rate books here than other platforms. While following people with similar tastes is definitely the move, the issue is that recommendations of people to follow are based off existing recently read. And my recently read for the past couple years or so has been so lackluster so it is recommending folks who I don't actually share the same taste with since algorithms tend to be self fulfilling.

I hope this makes more sense. This isn't about selecting books based on publicity alone. Also what's the point of reviewing books if we're going to discount the reviews?

This section is really interesting and makes me wonder if Karna turned out how Ganga hoped Devavrata would (save for some iffy choices by Karna….)