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ashley🌵AZ

@interview.with.a.reader

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👻 sleep token + every book genre
🐙 not yo mama, not yo safe space
🌿 year of Steinbeck
🌷 Christian▪️homeschool 🍄

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#thevibeibringtothefunction ✨

Listen. I'm really intense but also really chill. Awkward and shy but also chatty and warm. Just invite me. Whichever version you get, I'm super decent 👻💖

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#enneagram5 #bookstababe #dalecooper #saytheweirdthing #bookdragon #darklybookish #bookstagram #reader #readersofinstagram by @interview.with.a.reader

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2 years ago

🦋👻🖤🎃🍂

Happy birthday @mrsethring & one week til my birthday🎈

Featuring my mismatched, very incomplete selection of his books 😂

❔How do you feel about mixed editions in your series??

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#litrpg #october by @interview.with.a.reader

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13 hours ago

I will not be watching the tv adaptation of East of Eden.

Or The Odyssey. Magician's Nephew. Maybe Harry Potter?

There's a sore lack of beauty on the screen right now, and I just don't care.

That is all.

"And, of course, people are interested only in themselves.
If a story is not about the heater he will not listen."
▪️John Steinbeck, East of Eden

P.S.
Will I ever post an actual review for this book? I feel like everyone has said what needs to be said about it. It's beloved, it's worth the hype, it's amazing.

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#yearofsteinbeck
#letterboardquotes by @interview.with.a.reader

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3 days ago

Buckle up, besties: I wrote an essay✒️

"Strength and success--they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught."
▪️John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
(Swipe for more quotes)

TWOOD was Steinbeck's last published novel, and it carries the full weight of his convictions, written with the skill honed for his whole life in his great books that we know him better for.

The novel opens on Good Friday and continues through summer in the quintessential small American town, following the quintessential American family of a husband, wife, and two children; they're supported by the husband's unglamorous job working as a grocer. We spend the book inside his head as he, Ethan, grapples with his station, what he deserves, and if there's any way to improve his lot.

At every turn, Ethan is presented with temptations of all sorts. Readers of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes will find the pitch and timbre of these temptations and introspections very familiar: unjust measures, the woman in the street calling for your body, deceiving a friend, accepting a bribe, the allure of alcohol and laziness, frivolous chatter, a son who scorns his father.

Every Steinbeck book I've read thus far begs the question, what is the point? That the man with conviction and passion can't not but yearn to do good and strive to be good; yet the whole world seems to beat him down, that success only seems possible for the evil or the cheater...

It's so relevant for us today. The themes feel familiar and close, but also as a Christian, they also feel like temptation that maybe God isn't working, only watching.

Because unlike Steinbeck, I do believe in absolute good and evil, a God who will judge every unjust weight, and His mercy in this life and the next for those who trust Him. It would be easy to be cynical or to compromise for temporal gain. But we have faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for. (Hebrews 11)

"It isn't true that t by @interview.with.a.reader

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5 days ago

✨ If you like THIS, try THIS: Horror + Thrillers 👻

And if I remember correctly and not just through rose-tinted glasses, every single one of these books was a 5⭐ read for me.

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#ronaldmalfi #joshmalerman #paultremblay #gradyhendrix #jesslourey by @interview.with.a.reader

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6 days ago

☠️ currently ☠️

Les Miserables for a buddy real IRL
The Winter of Our Discontent for #yearofsteinbeck
The Phantom #gifted

Drinking: Danzeisen iced coffee with birthday cake creamer + protein powder

My sweet husband gifted me this cute, silly skelly cup! He's super WASPy and the biggest green flag softie of a guy, but he loves and supports my spooky streak. Yeah, we're really cute. by @interview.with.a.reader

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7 days ago

🌿Joanna R M is taking a break from traumatizing us to give us a cozy fantasy that releases next April! It sounds wonderful: a creature filled romantasy with tea and magic🫖🦄

Swipe to see the cover in all its cuteness and the synopsis ⏩

TEA & WIZARDRY is available for preorder now!

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@gamwyn
@amazonpublishing
#teaandwizardry #mythicalcreaturecafe #cozyfantasy #fantasyromance by @interview.with.a.reader

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8 days ago

🍁 Happy autumn equinox 🍂 it's still touching 100f here, so no fall feelings yet 🙃
❔Does it feel like fall for you yet??

"The only life I have left to live is future life. The past is not in my hands to offer or alter. It is gone. Not even God will change the past. All the expectations of God are future expectations. All the possibilities of faith and love are future possibilities. And all the power that touches me with help to live in love is future power. As precious as the bygone blessings of God may be, if He leaves me only with the memory of those, and not with the promise of more, I will be undone. My hope for future goodness and future glory is future grace."
▪️John Piper, Future Grace

💚 Look at these beautiful #gifted hardcover editions of Piper's books, Desiring God and Future Grace! There's one more in this set making it a stunning, high quality addition to any family library or sweet gift for someone else!

Synopsis:
"Future Grace offers meditations grounded in solid biblical reflection to help readers understand that the penalty of sin is paid by the righteous blood of Christ, while the power of sin is broken by banking on the promises of Christ. By cherishing these promises, readers will be better equipped to break free from anxiety, despondency, covetousness, lust, bitterness, impatience, pride, and misplaced shame, enabling them to pursue superior pleasure for the ultimate glory of Christ."

💚 Thank you @crosswaybooks for both of these books to read and review honestly and voluntarily. Review for Future Grace to come!

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9 days ago

In defense of engagement groups 👩🏻‍⚖️

❔Agree or disagree? Have you tried any of these groups? Is this helpful??

If you want to find a group, you can check out the few I tagged in the first slide! 😂😁💁🏻‍♀️

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10 days ago

I’m kind of shocked by how compelling I found this book.

"Fear is her default setting now; she can't remember what it was to feel normal in her skin."
▪️Teresa Driscoll, Close Your Eyes, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For the first part, I was enjoying the writing and the story was thrilling and suspenseful, but I basically thought, okay, another good thriller.

And then…it kept getting deeper.

The characters and their circumstances became increasingly nuanced and insightful. It's a masterclass in character development, and I loved how realistically the author leads you to crawl inside very different minds and perspectives.

⚠️ The plot gets *dark*: child d e a t h, domestic a b u s e, teen s e x and pregnancy, and other heavy subjects. None of it felt gratuitous to me. If anything, each difficult element added another layer to the characters and gave me something new to consider.

This is the second book of a duology, but it read fine as a standalone. This was my first book by this author, but I'm def going to dig in her backlist now!

Ignore how poorly the graphic looks over the book I'm holding. Ain't nobody got time to photoshop that stuff 😂

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11 days ago

"It was easy to disassociate oneself from the violence from so far above, she realized. To watch without understanding, without sympathy for those below, the way she could witness a spider devouring an aunt Tangled in its web and not give a damn."
▪️Roanne Lau, The Serpent Called Mercy
⭐⭐⭐⭐
#gifted DAW Books

Here are some takeaways and bullet points:

▪️Teen/YA Malaysian Chinese mythology inspired epic fantasy
▪️Underdog vs corrupt government and the rich
▪️Crafted to specifically highlight friendship between a male and female main characters, no romance

☝🏻Hunger Games-esque with the main characters fighting in an arena, but it's gladiator style with them fighting cursed monsters. This is definitely one of the best parts of the book! Very creative and engaging!

✌🏻In addiction to monsters, Lau crafted an intricate religion, myth, and philosophical conversations that are imaginative, consistent, and challenging enough for the reader without it being actually a difficult read.

🤟🏻 The biggest marketing point highlights how this is based on a friendship, but I found it be the weakest part of the story. They're like cousins, where a romantic relationship isn't even in the realm of possibility so it's never mentioned, but that's not the case! Realistically, there should have been some kind of tension, or a romantic interest side character or something.

▪️▪️▪️ taken in San Diego Zoo Safari Park by @interview.with.a.reader

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12 days ago

Y'all misled me.

The Library at Mount Char is weird, but it's not *that* weird.

🐯 "Stay away from windows. And if you see people with tentacles, stay away. Don’t let them touch you."

🐯 "For all intents and purposes, the power of the Library is infinite. Tonight we’re going to settle who inherits control of reality."

And, unfortunately, I didn't find it that great. It's good! But over-hyped, imo. The cover doesn't match the vibe of the book at all.

⚠️ It's violent (including SA) and full of cursing, and doesn't seem to have much of a deeper message or anything useful. It's somewhere between 2-3⭐ for me.

It's in the vein of David Wong and the Nightvale books but far less clever, and even Nightvale has beautifully woven depth and themes amidst the silliness.

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#darklybookish by @interview.with.a.reader

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14 days ago