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@bookswithvega

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28 | writer | eclectic mood reader | indy | 🏳️‍🌈 🇵🇷
43/38 read ‘26
📖: the iliad
💌: [email protected]

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Time for yet (ANOTHER) reintroduction! So much changes year by year, and I’ve been changing too!!

If you’re new here, Hi, I’m Vega!! If you’ve been here before, Hello again, friend! I just graduated college with an English degree with a concentration in creative writing which I am sooooo beyond excited about and could go on about forever, but that’s not why we’re here.

I’ve been here on bookstagram a couple years, and am truly the definition of a mood reader. A wide-ranging one, at that. I’ll pick up just about anything if I read the title or the first couple pages and find myself drawn in. I’d love to say I’m tied to a particular genre right now, but as someone currently reading a cli-fi, a gothic romance, AND a social sciences nonfiction pick, I can’t confidently say that in any regard 😭 I just love picking stuff up and taking a chance on it!!!

As is obvious by my choice of academic major, I’m a writer and am currently working on my biggest passion project to date, an unrequited—sapphic—wrestling romance. Wrestling is my not so guilty pleasure and something I can pop off about for hours at a time. I loved it as a kid, stepped away for a long while, and then found my way back to it as an adult.

I’m also in the baby stages of a nonfiction, part essay, part poetry collection about my life which I am excited for in a much different way than I am my novel. I love exploring family dynamics—especially my own—and getting to know myself more deeply by exploring my own life and feelings about said life.

Otherwise, I love watching movies—lots of horror, but also very eclectic in that regard. Lately, I’ve been trying to catch up on all the movies I missed while classes were in session. Recent watches I loved were Caddo Lake and Companion! And, I’m a HUUUGE music lover, always trying to catch a bucket list show or find a new artist that really captures my attention. I also enjoy finding new spots in my area to eat, travelling, and—of course—perusing my local bookstores for my next great read!

That’s all for now, let’s talk books—or whatever else—soon, Vega out!!

#bookish #reintroduceyourself #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #instachallenge by @bookswithvega

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5 months ago

Happy Pub Day to Look What the Cat Dragged in and a huge thank you to @flatiron_books First Looks for the gifted copy!!

Following Penny Padgett through the mysterious disappearance of her cat and the stumbling into of cat-sitting a rather strange cat, we see that there’s more than meets the eye to Penny’s situation than we ever thought.

The story starts off with some funny comic strips of Penny and Popcorn, her cat, before she goes missing. These scenes are corny but cute, and really establish their cat/owner relationship. The first third or so of the book, you’re not quite sure where we’re going, but your attention is held through the sad blizzard trekking to find Popcorn and some of the more comedic moments we see in Penny’s grief.

NOW, the last two thirds of this? Absolutely insane. The drawing gets more…. Sinister as Penny develops a relationship with a strange new cat, Godfrey, and her and her (eye-roll inducing) boyfriend begin cat-sitting him. Penny can’t figure out what’s wrong with her and starts a slow descent into both madness and declining physical health. As weirder and more terrifying things start to happen, and as her art loses its simplistic, child-suited comedy and takes on a nightmare inducing edge, she starts to want answers for what the hell is actually going on.

The pacing hits break-neck speed and it becomes impossible to put down. A great slow burn that suddenly snowballs!

Scroll for a taste of what I mean by cute to terrifying images!!

#bookreview #thriller #spookyreads #horrorreads #booksbooksbooks by @bookswithvega

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3 days ago

And it’s the best time of the year all of a sudden! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into some spooky scary reads!!

#booksbooksbooks #bookishchallenge #instachallenge #horrorreads #spookyseason by @bookswithvega

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9 days ago

What. A. Day.

From tabling to hearing one of my favorite writers talk about process, love, and loving where you come from.

The feeling of being around so many like-minded people enjoying a day like this feels like light, hope, and possibility. The world feels more open knowing that there is a population where I live that cares so deeply about art and the act of creating, and making a space for that TOGETHER. This is a space where we can talk about how and why we make art, what it does for the greater world, and reinforce that we can and should be making art for the pure sake of creating something.

Indy’s literary scene is alive and bursting with creativity. This community is something so sacred and beautiful and I am grateful beyond words to be a part of it.

Endless thanks to the people who made this happen, and to everyone who showed up and showed out as Proof that the literary heart of the Midwest is beating strong.

#prooflitfest #literaryevent #hanifabdurraqib #wordnerd #bookishevents by @bookswithvega

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12 days ago

A conversation about love, hope, and what it means to be earnest in an age where sincerity is perceived as “cringe”.

John Green is such a dream author to get to see in person. I read all of his books that were out when I was in high school, ESPECIALLY my absolutely weathered and cracked copy of Looking for Alaska. I found so much solace in Green’s characters and in the ways he wrote about love and loss and what it was to be a teenager in the world. Somehow, he nailed it time and time again. I cannot WAIT to see how he writes for an adult audience, how he captures the experience of one’s early twenties and what comes of living in a world so obsessed with and victimized by the attention economy we’re currently living in.

This conversation inspired me as a writer, but also just as a person. It’s proof to me that with the power of love and the words we read in books, that things cannot possibly be the way they are forever and that we’ll survive the current times as long as we stay educated and stick together.

Also, a huge bonus to hear an Indiana native talk about repping their state/city. Makes me love being from Indianapolis even with all my complicated feelings about my state.

#johngreen #authortalk #bookishevents #hollywoodending #bookishconversations by @bookswithvega

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13 days ago

Setting myself up for a (hopefully) successful ten before the end this year by NOT putting this list together at the end of October 😭 Will I follow through on it, though? We’ll seeeeee!!

Any ideas for what your ten before the end will look like, or even a book you know you just NEED to read before the year wraps?

#tenbeforetheend #bookishchallenge #instachallenge #bookstagram #bookgoals by @bookswithvega

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19 days ago

*Reposting because I didn’t like the main pic I used 😭
Been seeing this one around and had to jump on it because my to-review stack is getting bonkers!

It’s been a good couple months of reading, and I’ve been crossing genres like crazy. Can’t pin down any kind of vibe right now, I’m just playing roulette with my shelves at this point!!

#yesnomaybe #instachallenge #bookishchallenge #bookish #recentreads by @bookswithvega

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23 days ago

Picks subject to change!

Hit my reading goal for the year with a little over three months left to go, so I had to let y’all know where I’m at in terms of a top reads. Who know how much more I’ll read or how this list will change, but I’d say there are at least two books on this list that aren’t moving off!!

Have you hit your reading goal yet? If so, let me know some of your faves! If not, where are you at in terms of your reading goal?

#toptenreads #readinggoals #topten #booksilove #favoritereads by @bookswithvega

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a month ago

Research as a form of control, holding onto the dead’s belongings in hopes of their return.

Didion exposes herself with visceral honesty in The Year of Magical Thinking, letting us into how she grieved her late husband, John Dunne. She shows us the moment of Dunne’s death and leads us through the aftermath, but also guides us through the past and the signs that this heart attack seemed inevitable.

We see her use medical knowledge as a form of control in the face of doctors as her daughter struggles with on-and-off illness, which started shortly before her Dunne’s heart attack.

We see this idea of “magical thinking” insert itself into the narrative as Didion tries to get rid of her husbands belongings, keeping his shoes because “What if he comes back and doesn’t have his shoes?” She wakes multiple times, forgetting of his passing until the reality hits her over and over again.

She exposes her bids for control in the midst of her grieving process, hiding nothing as she shows not just the worst parts of herself in this situation, but the vulnerable and sensitive parts of herself as well. You find yourself as the reader feeling for her but also frustrated with the ways she treats others in her clawing for some sense of power over this period of her life.

#theyearofmagicalthinking #joandidion #nonfiction #memoir #bookreview by @bookswithvega

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a month ago

Final NYC haul vid!!! Editing this into something coherent was a BEAST, y’all. For some reason I’m tripping and stumbling over my tongue today.

This might be my favorite (or second favorite) haul stack of them all! Three of my favorite authors all on one haul, suffice it to say I’m impressed with myself 😭

#bookhaul #booksaremagic #bookstack #bookishhaul #bookishreels taken in New York City by @bookswithvega

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a month ago

What I read this week! Was so locked in on The Land Breakers that I couldn’t pull my attention to anything else for most of the week. Sad to leave that world and those characters behind, but loved every second of the breaking of the land of the NC Appalachian Mountains.

Almost 100 pages into Shadow of the Solstice and still can’t quite tell how I feel about it. The pacing is… Interesting and slowly but surely the two storylines are coming together, but there are way too many characters in this world for my liking and we switch in and out of perspectives a bit too much.

What did your week in reading look like?

#whatireadthisweek #instachallenge #bookishchallenge #weeklyreads #reading by @bookswithvega

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a month ago

Let’s talk current reads!

As usual, I’m ALL OVER THE PLACE when it comes to what I’m alternating between right now. I’ll be honest, though, and say I’m mostly reading just The Land Breakers right now because I can’t get enough of how it reflects the period it was written in and how the relationships make the story.

That said, we know I read Wilson’s Odyssey translation, so I had to hit The Iliad too. It’s going slow, though, because the beginning is so much establishing of the characters, place, and war itself.

Onto Don’t Stop, I absolutely love Fleetwood Mac and an fascinated by the history and stories behind Rumours. The first half was the more interesting section to me, but the second half breaking down each individual song and it’s creative process/why people have fallen in love with whatever specific song is a fun lens to look at the music through.

What are your current reads?

#currentreads #currentlyreading #bookstack #nowreading #booksbooksbooks by @bookswithvega

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2 months ago