Showing posts with label diversity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diversity. Show all posts

Tuesday 20 April 2021

Review Time! - The Sigil by Shakeil Kanish and Larissa Mandeville



'The Sigil' with an artsy black marble background



* = commission link




'The Sigil' book cover with the silhouette of a person in a hoodie, and a glowing light
*
Title: The Sigil*


Author: Shakeil Kanish, Larissa Mandeville


Genre: Young Adult (New Adult crossover appeal,) Fantasy, Witches(-ish,) LGBTQ+ (relationships: M/M, side M/F, refs to F/F)

Friday 9 April 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Hargreeves Family Schmoop

 

'Diego drags a hand over his face, groaning. "I didn’t know meeting a six year old would take this much effort."'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape



This week's fic is just a schmoopy and super-cute li'l fic all about family!

(Woo!)

As we all know, (or maybe we don't, but if that's the case I'ma tell you!) the Hargreeves family, aka the members of The Umbrella Academy, have a butt-tonne of family issues.

Like, the tagline to the Netflix series is actually 'Super. Dysfunctional. Family.' and that pretty much sums it up, tbh.

So I kinds love fics where the Hargreeveseseses are like super-duper-awkward about family stuff, but somehow make it work (mostly because they never manage to make it work in canon!)

Wednesday 7 April 2021

Month in Review(s) - March 2021


(Warning: this post briefly discusses family ill health, mental health problems, and Covid 19)



So, dearest nerdlets: March!

March was better for me personally as Nan's health, although still exceptionally fragile, has been a little better and more stable. Hopefully it'll stay that way and/or keep improving.



'March - Mawrth' with pink background and flowers

Friday 26 March 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Be There, Angel

 

'If Aziraphale didn’t know better, he might have thought his friend was crying, but it had been centuries since he’d seen Crowley do that.'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape

 


This week's fic is from the Good Omens fandom - the Amazon Prime TV series based on the book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that I still haven't gotten around to reading (*gasps*!)

And I think what impresses me the most about this fic is the way that it somehow manages to weave the content of the fic almost seamlessly into the canon.

Friday 19 March 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Movie Night Is Kind Of Crowded


'For Klaus, there are – approximately – seven million people crammed into this slumber party, most of them screaming at the top of their lungs'




'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape

 


I read a lot of Umbrella Academy fanfiction, like a butt-tonne.

So yes, this week's fic rec is once again an Umbrella Academy fic.

Thursday 18 March 2021

Thursday 11 March 2021

Sunday 7 March 2021

Nerd Church - Covid 19: Years From Now, How Will We Explain?

(Warning: as you can probably tell, this post is about Coronavirus/Covid 19. 

It also references: anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories, general 2020-ness, mental health problems, Trump, discrimination, ableism, systemic racism, and other systemic discrimination)




"My grandparents lived through the First World War and the Spanish Flu and all that," my mam said, "it's weird - they never talked about it much."


"Well," I said, "imagine explaining 2020, and the pandemic, to someone who's not even born yet. How could you even begin to make them understand?"




'Covid 19: Years From Now, How Will We Explain?' with artsy blue background



If a child asked, decades from now, 'what happened in 2020 and 2021? How did so many people die of Covid?' - what would you answer?

Where would we start? With the fires and the floods and World War Three trending at the beginning of 2020? 

Or would we just jump straight into the Lockdowns, the social distancing, masks, Covid testing, the race for a vaccine...?


Friday 5 March 2021

Friday Fics Fix - In A Sense

 

'Bucky sucks in a crushed breath. Orange-black and pinned like butterfly wings.'


'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape


This fic is so beautifully written.

And you should all know by now that when I find a beautifully written fic, I'm gonna rec it!

Wednesday 3 March 2021

Month In Review(s) - February 2021

 

(Warning: this post discusses Coronavirus/Covid 19 and mental health problems)



We are two months into 2021. Just two months.

I have nearly lost my Nan twice so far in 2021.



'February - Chwefror, with desk, scattered hearts, and notebook with pencil


Covid (which she had in January) has been so damaging to her health... it's awful. 

If you're one of the people who thinks it's not that bad, or it's a hoax, or it somehow doesn't apply to you, then you can fuck off.

And yes, it kills me to write swear words without *s, but I'm leaving it in.


Friday 26 February 2021

Friday Fics Fix - I Am Utter Trash and Do Not Care To Hide It


'...“But when he doesn’t show up for pancakes it's good practice to make sure he hasn’t fallen down a manhole or something,”

Klaus resists the urge to hiss.'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape


You know I love novel (or novella) length fanfiction.

The beautiful dedication that it takes to write a piece like this always makes me smile.

Sunday 21 February 2021

Nerd Church - Popular Vs Pretentious: I Read Martin Scorsese's Essay So You Don't Have To

 


Why are popular films, and popular media in general, somehow seen as unworthy?

Who decides what counts as Art anyways? 

Cos being asked to locate the grand-high judge of all things artsy films would not have me running to call Martin Scorsese (...who would totally take my call, because let's face it, I'm awesome and stubborn as a mule persistent.)


'Popular Vs Pretentious: I Read Martin Scorsese's Essay So You Don't Have To' against a crinkled brown-paper background


In a pretentious burst of overly-descriptive prose, Martin Scorsese's essay in Harper's Magazine was published this week to the irritation of many fans of superhero blockbusters and popular films.

Why? 

Well, Scorsese previously ran his mouth about Marvel movies in 2019, and it seems that even in this current piece about the artsy Italian director Federico Fellini, he couldn't resist some entitled barbs at films that people actually like watching.

It's titled, 'Il Maestro: Federico Fellini and the lost magic of cinema' because... why not? I guess?


Friday 19 February 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Keep Calm and Carry On

* = commission link



'The massive box of 64 crayons calls to me, every one of them waiting to be picked and pressed to a page. (I could have gone for the box of 120, but that seemed like too much.)'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape



This week's fic is from a fandom that is super-popular, but also not especially well-known outside its core fanbase.

 ...which is why I'm going to do a very brief explanation of Carry On* aka the Simon Snowverse just so's we're all on the same page.

(I realise that a lot of die-hard fans are probably screaming that how could anyone not know about Simon Snow?! But we do not gatekeep here at Dora Reads, dearest nerdlets.)


(Fandom notes:

gatekeeping - also a non-fandom term, when used in fandom this typically takes the form of 'you're not a real fan of [insert fandom or genre or author, etc.] unless you've [insert arbitrary benchmark]')


Thursday 18 February 2021

Comics Wrap-Up - Bite the Lightning and Tell Me How It Tastes

 

'Comics Wrap-Up' with lined-notebook-style background and speech bubbles containing heart symbols


It's Thursday, somehow it's only February, let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!

Everything is once again in the 'other stuff' category (dammit Loki!)

Tuesday 16 February 2021

Month in Review(s) - January 2021

(Warning: this post discusses Coronavirus/Covid 19)


On a personal level, January sucked. Bad.

My beautiful Nan got Covid, and combined with her other health problems, despite the fact that she had very few symptoms, we nearly lost her. 

There are very few things more distressing than watching someone you love slowly fade away via video link.


'January' spelled out in scrabble tiles, with 'Ionawr' written beneath it


Honestly? If you're STILL not taking Coronavirus seriously, you can fuck the hell off.

And, dearest nerdlets, you know how upset I have to be to swear without censoring myself. 

I really wanna delete a few letters and add *s, but I'm not gonna, cos despite the fact that I'm a nice well-brought-up Welsh girl, that's how annoyed I am, and how much you suck if you're one of the selfish people who still isn't taking precautions.