June 2022, fave media
Lots of Ilona Andrews, good tunes, and some live events.
Rereads
Ilona Andrews’ Magic Triumphs (Kate Daniels #10) & Blood Heir (Aurelia Ryder #1)
This series/universe continues to be a joy/comfort.
Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy #1-5
In case you couldn’t tell, Ilona Andrews is one of my favorite authors. I didn’t time this in order to be ready for Ruby Fever, but it worked out quite nicely. Also I will take Alessandro over Rogan any day.
Forthright’s Dragged Through Hedgerows (Songs of the Amaranthine #3)
Another comfort read.
Audio
Beyoncé’s Break My Soul
A jam.
Seinabo Sey’s Blessed
Blue and Rom Com were two of my favorite tracks last year, and this one is no exception.
Wooden Overcoats S4
Whewwww the character development/pay off, especially Antigone’s. Also Chapman’s mysterious backstory revealed!
Relisten: Life With Leo(h) S1
Which is also crowdfunding it’s second and final season here!
Live
Hadestown
I hate unhappy endings, and yet here I am saying this was excellent. See it live if you can.
Stars on Ice
Holy smokes, watching the Olympic programs live was an Experience. Especially Jason Brown’s Sinnerman, which broke my brain with its brilliance.
May 2022, fave media
Books
Akwaeke Emezi’s You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty
Whewww, what a book about being alive. The implorement to live reminds me of Princess Mononoke, tbh.
Ed. Andrea Purcell’s Sordid Past
An Iron Circus comic anthology is guaranteed to be great art and very gay. Their Smut Peddler line continues to be some of the best erotica anthologies on the market. This one is no exception.
Re-reads: Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels #6-9 + Iron Covenant #1
Smart, hilarious, and unforgettable characters you love dearly. In other words, magic.
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prose poem: taurus birthday affirmation
Written for the inimitable kuuleimomi’s birthday. Crossposted to IG.
There’s a Tumblr (?) post that goes something like this: staying soft in this world is not a weakness, it is a strength. This is a variation on that. This also draws from all the Chani Nicholas affirmation horoscopes I’ve read over the years.
Keeping your hands open in this world that has brought down rulers upon your palms. Keeping your mouth open, even after your then-best-friend put the black licorice jellybean, your least favorite flavor, on your tongue. Keeping on, even after capitalism squeezes every cent from your blood, the joy from your marrow.
All of this is a skill. One of my favorite quotes (author unknown even with googling) is that the heart is a muscle, and like any muscle it can grow as we use it. Our ability to remain open, receptive, vulnerable, whatever you like to call it, is also one of these muscles. I have practiced unclenching my hands, even as I sleep, so I can catch whatever dreams come my way. Naming what I want, asking for what I want, letting myself have what I want – I have practiced all of these. I still do.
To paraphrase the end of the Utena movie, the world gets that much bigger for the way we live, pushing at the limits of what we are told is possible. Octavia says the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it’s been done before.
So I believe in wedding rings on all my fingers, vows of commitment to all my relations beneath this sky and maybe even beyond it. I believe in your palm in mine, and another’s in yours, and another’s in theirs going on and on – a whole loving community. I believe in rain on my tongue, and all the fine dining and comfort food I love. Speaking of love, I believe in love running through my veins, that love is a key and a door to a different world. I believe in pleasure that makes me cry out, in joy that pours through every crack and crevice and barrier ever put in place.
On this day and all days, I keep on, I choose to try, I choose to believe.
April 2022, fave media
Music
Olivia Dean’s I Wish I Didn’t Miss You (Angie Stone cover)
This grooves hard.
dollstr!ke’s In the Blue
I love a good pop song.
KAINA’s Casita (Live at NPR Tiny Desk x SXSW)
Rebirth Canal’s AI
I keep thinking about these lines: “i want to you be gentle / i want you to be strong // with all senses uncompressed”
Allison Russell’s Nightflyer (Live at the 2022 Grammys)
I love her voice in this lower register.
Sophia Subbayya Vastek’s The Seas That Made Us
The Suffers’ Don’t Bother Me
Doesn’t it just make you wanna dance?
Misc.
Film: Maggie Q’s The Protege
The cat-mouse UST? *chef’s kiss*
TV: Bridgerton S2
OMFG. SO GOOD! I know a lot of people weren’t into all the changes between season, but I am into it. (Also, it’s normal in romance books anyways.) The eye-fucking! The UST! A dark-skinned leading lady! I do think the season could’ve benefited from additional episodes to work through the fall-out though.
Podcast: Where Should We Begin? S5x06, Twice Married, To Each Other
I really liked her tips that to help diffuse an argument, try arguing while lying down or touch each other. Transcript here.
poem: devil’s food
Sequel to devil’s doorbell! Our narrator discovers they’ve captured the attention of a devil. An excerpt was cross-posted to IG. There might be a couple more in this series, no ETA though.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that
looking for the devil’s doorbell
wasn’t a one-and-done kinda deal.
Like all adventures, it is an invitation,
a call, and like an open door,
anyone can come on through the other side.
Let it not be said, that the devil does
not have a sense of humor. They
did not knock at my door, but rang,
at the very reasonable hour of 1:30pm,
as if they’d known any earlier would’ve
roused me from my slumber and I would not
have answered; and any later, I would’ve
been gone grocery shopping.
March 2022, fave media
This was a slow month for me, but was carried by good TV and film.
Books
Melissa Febos’ Body Work
Will be thinking about the essay “Mind Fuck” for awhile.
Erica Ridley’s An Affair by the Sea (The Siren’s Retreat #2)
Hilarious.
Reread: Nalini Singh’s Whisper of Sin (Psy-Changeling #.75)
Music
Caitlyn Scarlett ft. Her Ensemble’s Forgive Yourself
Videos
Lizzo’s Watch Out For the Big Grrrls S1
I binge-watched this and it was so much fun.
Niecy Nash Betts & Jessica Betts React to Couples Astrology Reading
11 minute video, English captions available. I believe in love!
Queer Disability Justice Dreams
1 hour 45 minute video, ASL and English captions available. Discussion between Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Sami Schalk. I’m especially thinking about the mutual aid parts.
Honorable Mention: Domee Shi’s Turning Red and Lana Wachowski’s Matrix Resurrections
Feb 2022, fave media
Books
Jessie Mihalik’s Hunt the Stars (Starlight’s Shadow #1)
Tremendous fun. I picked this up sight unseen based on how much fun I had in her previous trilogy, and it was totally worth it.
Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis
Hysterically funny. Also the demisexual rep took me out.
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poem: werewolf girlfriends
Written 6.9.21. About once a year I try writing song lyrics. Was going for sapphic, sexy, werewolf, fairy tale vibes. Cross-posted to IG.
[Person 1]
Once I sink my teeth into you,
girl, oh girl, I’m not letting go.
Gonna run my tongue along the
length of you, split you right open
and swallow whatever spills
right outta ya.
Girl, oh girl, didn’t they warn you
about girls like me, all roaming hands
and empty stomach, seeking what
will keep me sated, I taste and taste
hoping this one one will keep me warm,
but oh it’s never enough.
If I didn’t sink my teeth into you,
you’d just run away into the night.
I know, because it’s what I did
[Person 2]
Little girl lost, you think this would scare me?
When my home has held more horrors
than the ones inside your mouth?
Let me see what big eyes you have,
let me see what great big paws you have,
let me see what big teeth you have,
and I will learn their shape with my hands,
and open myself up upon their tips.
Oh, little girl who plays as wolf, you think
you are the only one who knows how to hunger? I have
Heard the tales of all the bloodied hearts you left behind,
and I have made myself a perfect invitation for you.
So come closer, let me plunge my fingers
into your pelt, smell the wild on you,
and crawl right into you.
[Together]
Girls like us are made for the kill
running wild throughout the night.
Wolves are not meant to go alone
and neither are girls without a home.
So you and I will go hand in bloody hand,
finding satisfaction ‘neath the roaming moonlight.
Jan 2022, fave media
Books
The Mask of Mirrors and The Liar’s Knot by M.A. Carrick (Rose and Rook #1 & 2)
I binged these. Once Mask of Mirrors popped off at the 50% mark, I read like… 1100 pages in 3 days? During which I read 90% of The Liars’ Knot in one day. TMoM is broody, but TLK is rip-roaring fun full of humor and identity shenanigans.
The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith
Hello, yes, sisterhood of nuns who spin the wind into magic. I need a sequel ASAP about Grace when she’s older and on her pilgrimage. And yes the magic system is cool AF.
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Esther O. Lee 