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megan

@plotpressed

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find me crying over a book character at any given moment
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•intj
•sp(ace) stan
•expert daydreamer
•befriender of cats
•player of pianos
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✨ // “Victor Vale. Victorious.”
“And yet.”
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Happy Victorious Release Day! I can’t believe it’s already here, and yet been 13 years in the making. 🍁

I still very vividly remember reading Vicious back in my college dorm room, entranced and completely awed by it. It was my first V. E. Schwab book… which led into the Shades of Magic series… which led into every single one of her books after that. And now she’s one of my all-time favorite authors.

Vicious is a book I recommend often, talk about any time someone mentions villains, and truly love rereading almost annually at this point. My Roman Empire!

So, it feels very full circle and a little bittersweet to now be 30 and revisiting these characters — who have seemingly grown up with me, from college to now — and reading their finale.
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I’m only 30% in (so no spoilers! 😤), but I am very excited to see how this trilogy ends.

Here’s to Victorious!
✨ by @plotpressed

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6 days ago

✨ // What are y’all up to this weekend?
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Here in Cincinnati, it is the annual #CincyBookstoreCrawl weekend: aka. one of my absolute favorite events of the year! I look forward to it every October now. 🥹🍁

Since I work on Sunday this year, I had to get to all 26 shops in two days, and I somehow did?! WILD. This is the one weekend of the year I truly splurge on buying books — I’m otherwise using our phenomenal public library system to death 🫶 — and it makes me so happy to see indie bookstore owners face-to-face and give them all my money and love!

I did extend *a little* self-control with the buys (just a little), but always happy to shop local.

(ALSO cool that these 26 stores aren’t even the only independent bookstores in the area — we have a ton more! LOVE our literary scene here!)

Anyway, I already can’t wait until next year! 😉
✨ by @plotpressed

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9 days ago

✨ // What’s a favorite “classic” book of yours?
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Happy October 1st (spooky month!!) and a Happy East of Eden Release Day to all watching! 🍁

I won’t rehash my love for this novel yet again — Steinbeck’s the current hyperfixation, let me LIVE — but I am VERY interested in what this show adaptation could bring. It’s such a cool story, told over three generations, and I’m eager to see what bits from the novel make it in and which are changed for the screen.

Happy watching!
✨ by @plotpressed

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11 days ago

✨ // What was a highlight of September for you?
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Happy End of the Month, friends! How’d we do? We make it through okay?

September was a busy little month for me, and most of it my own doing. 🙈 Aside from a work schedule change (NOT my doing), I had a few friend events, family visits, new recipes, a long hike, and of course: Steinbeck September!

If you have followed along with my journey through the 30 works of John Steinbeck, you are a trooper! WOW. That was a lot of reading in one month — I promise I’ll be much chiller in October… mostly. 😉

Here’s everything I read this month:

✨ Cup of Gold (🎧) — 3.5 stars
✨ The Pastures of Heaven (RR) — 4.5 stars
✨ To A God Unknown — 3.5 stars
✨ Tortilla Flat — 3.5 stars
✨ In Dubious Battle — 4.25 stars
✨ The Harvest Gypsies — 4 stars
✨ Of Mice and Men (RR) — 5 stars
✨ The Red Pony — 5 stars
✨ The Long Valley (RR) — 4 stars
✨ The Grapes of Wrath (RR) — 4.25 stars
✨ The Forgotten Village — 3.25 stars
✨ The Moon Is Down (RR) — 4.25 stars
✨ Bombs Away (🎧) — 3 stars
✨ Cannery Row (RR) — 4.25 stars
✨ The Wayward Bus — 3 stars
✨ The Pearl (🎧 / RR) — 5 stars
✨ A Russian Journal (🎧) — 3.5 stars
✨ Burning Bright — 4.5 stars
✨ The Log from The Sea of Cortez — 3.75 stars
✨ Sabriel (🎧) — 3 stars
✨ East of Eden (RR) — 5 stars
✨ Sweet Thursday — 4 stars
✨ The Short Reign of Pippin IV — 3 stars
✨ Once There Was A War — 3 stars
✨ The Winter of Our Discontent — 4.5 stars
✨ Travels With Charley In Search of America (RR) — 4 stars
✨ America and Americans — 4 stars
✨ Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters — 4.25 stars
✨ Viva Zapata! — 3.5 stars
✨ The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (🎧) — 3 stars
✨ Working Days — 3.75 stars
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I loved revisiting old favorites *and* discovering new ones with this reading marathon. I’ve also enjoyed seeing the trajectory and build of a single author’s life in both work and his behind-the-scenes influence through it.

Highly recommend picking a beloved author of *yours* and reading all their work in one go! The headspace is so immersive and a little all-consuming… but fun! 🍁
✨ by @plotpressed

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12 days ago

✨ // What’s your favorite cold-weather clothing item?
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It is unfortunately ✨back to summer heat✨ this week here (km pls 😭), so I’m in shorts and T-shirts… AGAIN. UGH.

I’d much rather be rocking a hoodie, leggings, and some combat boots, thank you very much! Bring on the sweaters! And flannel! And sweatpants! I want to feel COLD. PLEASE.
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Reading update: two more books in my Steinbeck September challenge! Can I do it…? 👀 We will see!
✨ by @plotpressed

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13 days ago

✨ // Do you like going on walks? Where do you usually go?
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Well, it has been a MONDAY, huh? Goodness! 😮‍💨 But hey, we made it through. Somehow.

One of the ways I like to relax after one such day is going on a long walk, especially one amongst trees. There’s just something so calming about nature to me, I love it!

And this book on my shelf — which I still need to read, oops — reminded me of one of my autumn bucket list items for this year: walk through the Spring Grove Cemetery, apparently the third largest cemetery in the United States… and it’s literally just a few minutes drive down the road from me!

Cincinnati is always shocking me at just how much is hidden and historied here. 👀

Plus, I just love a cemetery. The quiet, reverent air, the history, the beauty: such lovely places!
✨ by @plotpressed

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14 days ago

✨ // What’s a favorite trope or microtrope of yours?
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Ever since, well, forever, I’ve been obsessed with stories about a protagonist stumbling into or accidentally discovering other worlds either parallel or completely opposite our own. Specifically those pockets found deep in the woods, but anywhere a little spooky and mysterious, really!

I think because I grew up playing in the forest and in big backyards I could get lost in, a part of me always hoped to find something even more magical than just the nature itself. Maybe that’s why I keep adventuring into them still today… 🍁
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Reading update: final few days of Steinbeck September, and I have 6.5 books still left to go. Oof. But… I think I can do it?! 👀

Either way, it’s been an absolute blast so far. Highly recommend! I’m currently on The Winter of Our Discontent and then Travels With Charley is up next.
✨ by @plotpressed

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16 days ago

✨ // What’s your favorite fall activity?
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Happy Autumnal Equinox, friends! One of my favorite season changes is finally here!

To celebrate: a throwback pic to a pumpkin book stack a did a few years ago. 🤭🍁
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Reading update: currently (re)reading East of Eden and absolutely LOVING it. I read it many years ago at this point and still consider it one of my favorites, so to revisit has been an absolute blast.

Slow-moving through it, though — digesting every line! — so I’ll have to speed-read some of the later Steinbeck works here in the second-half of the week… despite making new social plans then which would inhibit reading time… oops!

We’ll make it work! I’m determined now to finish this challenge. 💪
✨ by @plotpressed

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20 days ago

✨ // What’s your favorite supernatural being?
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As much as I talk and read and talk some more about them, my favorite supernatural being is pretty obvious: vampires. 🤭

I love that they can represent a spectrum of romance and lust and terror and depravity and loneliness and power and ache… or all of the above at once! There is so much lore about them, yet there’s still something fresh every time they get reintroduced into the popular media.

I will forever love a vampire story — hoping to read a few in October after this Steinbeck marathon!
✨ by @plotpressed

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a month ago

✨ // How do you like to spend a long weekend?
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Meant to post this yesterday, so Happy (Belated) Labor Day! Seems fitting that a lot of my reads this month deal with class struggles, workers rights, and ✨The American Dream✨ — thanks, John Steinbeck!

And thank you, Monty, for crashing the photoshoot for today’s book pic. 🙈

A long weekend for me means either: a quick roadtrip away, a lazy lounger, or nice and productive. This past weekend was definitely the latter for me, which was kind of nice! Doing all the things! Woo!

And… now back to the Steinbeck marathon… by @plotpressed

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a month ago

✨ // Is there a book that instantly gives you autumn vibes?
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While it’s still boiling hot outside where I live, I’m already dreaming of lovely fall weather and cardigans and boots and leggings and cold-evening walks and AHH. I need it all to come soon, please! 🍁

One book/series I see on my shelf that always gives me autumnal vibes is The Raven Boys/Cycle by Maggie Steifvater. The tone, the themes, the setting — very nostalgic and dreamy! It’s a series I hope to reread at some point this season.
✨ by @plotpressed

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a month ago

✨ // When does autumn *really* mean autumn for you?
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Happy September, friends! 🍁

Amidst all the PSLs, fall movie playlists, and spooky season prep of today… I am unfortunately, an autumnal equinox enthusiast. (I know, I know.) September is logically autumn in my brain — back to school time when I was younger, certain harvests, prepping for Halloween, etc. — but with this week’s heat? OH, it’s still summer, baby. (Hate that.)

Still going to enjoy that (iced) fall drink in the meantime, though…
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And with September, I thought to myself: how can I make a hectic, never-ending TBR even more procrastinated? Why, by a read-every-John-Steinbeck-book-for-funsies challenge, of course! (30+ books total, depending how you count them. 😳)

So, here’s we are! 🍂

I’m a big John Steinbeck fan, and have loved a lot of what I’ve read by him over the years. I always collect a new edition of one of his books when I travel, so while I was initially going to challenge myself to read *only* the John Steinbeck books I already own copies of… why stop there! Do ‘em all!

Aiming to read his works in publication order, and I’ll have a ✨Steinbeck September✨ template in my stories if you want to play along at some point, too. 😉

September, here we go!
✨ by @plotpressed

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a month ago