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Marcelo

@pensivecitadel

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“My pensive citadel, here I had read and studied through all the hours of the night”
Translating Latin America | Enjoying my books 📚

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🔍 September Scavenger Hunt 🔍

I did @sirenbee_readsnthings’ newest scavenger hunt and it was fun and cute!

I decided to do this one with only books from my ever-growing tbr stack(s), so here goes:

Title that starts with S
🖤 Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz (my current read!)

Takes place in a school
🖤 Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga

On your September tbr
🖤 Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary

Short story collection or novella
🖤 I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Cover is in fall colors
🖤 A Little Luck by Claudia Pineiro

A title or cover with a name or person
🖤 Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf

I’ve tagged a few of you who might want to join in, and if you see this and are looking for some bookish fun, please consider yourself tagged.

⭐️ Have you read any of these books from my tbr? Which stand out to you?

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July Scavenger Hunt! Tagged by @kxu65 for #WinterInSummer reads:

🔁 A book I have reread: The Christ Commission

✍🏼 An author with an initial in their name: L. M. Montgomery

❄ A title that begins with "Winter": In the Grip of Winter

🎄 Christmas in July: Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

📅 A book on my TBR since December: Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop

⛵ A cover with something you'd find at the beach: The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop

🎂 Dedicating this post to July birthday celebrants: @neuneuneugierig @coffee_n_classics @rolly.looks.at.books @jocelyn.reads.books Is anyone else celebrating their birthday in July?

🎅 If you see this, consider yourself tagged!

🔖 #ScavengerRoad26 #ScavengerHunt #BookCoverChallenge #JulyScavengerHunt

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Full name Friday, for Marcelo @pensivecitadel

It took five years, but I finally have enough titles for a new post. The last two pics are from 2021, when Insta was still square.

What a bunch of characters! Thanks Marcelo for the nudge to check my shelves again.
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#fullnamestack #bookstagram #bookstagramph

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🌺 May Scavenger Hunt 🌺

Happy Mother’s Day! 🦋 I did @nothing.beats.a.good.book’s newest scavenger hunt, which was fun and easy:

The number 5 in the title
🌺 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

5 letters in author’s first and last name
🌺 White Teeth by Zadie Smith (also 5 letters in each word of the title 🙀)

Title ending in Y
🌺 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Purple cover for Stroke Awareness Month
🌺 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Bee on the cover for National Bee Day
🌺 The Wasp Network by Iain Banks (close enough)

Cocktail on cover for World Cocktail Day
🌺 Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym

I’ve tagged a few of you who might be interested, and if you see this and are so inspired, please join in!

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🎈Birthday Scavenger Hunt 🎈

I did Marcelo @pensivecitadel’s newest scavenger hunt, created to celebrate both his birthday this week and all of our reading journeys. This was super fun.

A book from your childhood
📕From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler

A book you enjoyed as a young teen
📕The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

A book that you checked out of your school library
📕The Stranger by Albert Camus
(oops, looks like I forgot to return it…)

A book that was published the year you were born
📕Kindred by Octavia Butler

A book you were gifted
📕Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
(anniversary edition gifted by my mother)

A book that changed your perspective
📕Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
(this book blew my mind in high school)

A favorite cover
📕In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
(❤️ Richard Avedon photos)

A protagonist you relate to
📕High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
(this book is No.1 in my Top Five Books About Music- also, my first job was working in an indie record store)

A book with a favorite quote or passage
📕A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
(so many of these poems)

What are your old favorites? ✨

PS- Happy #caturday! Swipe for 🐈

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Wednesday Flatlay

[Poetry Scavenger Hunt edition]

I can be a bit of a book challenge junkie, creating & participating enthusiastically + trying to rise to the occasion when tagged. When I recently failed at @biblioteca.becca's tag for @pensivecitadel’s 2nd Women’s History hunt (it was hard + I ran out of month; happily, I succeeded at the 1st!), I was crestfallen. Thus it felt essential I pull through on Marcelo’s tag for his April POETRY Scavenger Hunt. He gave us 9 poetry-related prompts, some so challenging:

• Translated collection: A Year with Rumi collected/translated by Coleman Barks

I chose beloved Iranian poet Rumi; my country (sadly & unsupported by me) is engaged in war w/Iran.

• Collection by a poet who also writes novels: Edgar Allen Poe, Stories & Poems

Tricky. I have lots of prose by authors who also write poetry, but not vice versa. Poe did write one novel, apparently not well received, called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

• Selected/collected works: Love’s Witness: 5 Centuries of Love Poetry by Women compiled by Jill Hollis

Women poets FTW!

• Debut collection: What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer

Love her relatable poems.

• Bilingual collection: The Duino Elegies + Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke

This one gave me fits! Went w/a hybrid: volume of translated poems w/no German + Letters, which isn't actually a poetry collection but has a poem in German/English.

• Collection under 100 pages: House of Light by Mary Oliver

Mary is the queen.

• Epic poem: The Odyssey by Homer

My battered copy from HS. There’s no love lost between me & this one: I got the only C I ever received on an essay about it + I have tutored countless students as they struggled through it.

• Favorite poet: Dog Show by Billy Collins

I adore dogs AND Billy.

• Anthology: A Controversy of Poets edited by Paris Leary & Robert Kelly

That title!

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Swipe to see additional photos and then go to comments for my explanations! Photo 5 is my fav. 💖

And consider yourself tagged, but I’m warning you: not for the faint of heart. Thanks for the fun, Marcelo!

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Which book here would you pick up?

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💃🏻 Women’s Scavenger Hunt: Pt 2 💃🏻

I did Marcelo @pensivecitadel’s Women’s History Month Scavenger Hunt PART TWO for twice the fun, this time focused on women writers!

A book by a woman who has won the Nobel Prize
📕Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

A book written by a woman who is also a Philosopher
📕The Inseparables by Simone De Beauvoir (tbr)

A book written by a woman in STEM
📕Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
(Owens is a zoologist.)

A book written by a woman who is an educator
📕White Teeth by Zadie Smith
(Smith is an NYU Professor.)

A book written by a woman that is banned or challenged
📕The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison*
(*Morrison is also a Nobel Prize winner)

A book by a woman with a photo of its author on the cover
📕The Fran Leibowitz Reader

A book about an influential woman
📕In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
(Historical fiction based on the lives of the famous Dominican revolutionaries, the Mirabal sisters.)

A book written by a woman who is a political activist
📕The Color Purple by Alice Walker
(Walker was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which inspired her novel Meridian, about voting rights volunteers in 1960s Mississippi.)

A memoir written by a woman
📕Just Kids by Patti Smith

Good times! I have tagged a few of you who might want to join in (no pressure), and if you see this and want to share your own collection, please consider this your invitation.

Happy reading! 💃🏻

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Women's Month #marchscavengerhunt,
for Marcelo @pensivecitadel.

Part 1: WOMEN'S STORIES
1) Title with a woman's name
Claire de Witt and the Bohemian Highway
2) About motherhood - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is Francie's book, but Katie, her struggling, fierce Mama at 17, is all over it
3) Dedicated to a woman - Enough Rope "To my wonderful editor Jane Wood, and to the memory of Eve and Trix."
4) Woman holding a book - Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
5) Sisters - The Grammarians
6) Multiple generations - The Woman Warrior
7) Classic retold from a female perspective - Demon Copperfield, not the character but at least the author
8) Short stories by women - Amy Hempel, Collected Stories
9) Female friendship - Truth & Beauty

Next up: Part 2, WOMEN'S WORK.

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🔎What’s In A Name?

♻️ I’ve noticed that Oscar Wilde frequently recycled names across his works, often using them for very different characters. I found that this habit is widely attributed to his desire to avoid libel suits from the real-life London socialites he was satirizing. By reusing established fictional names, he could distance his characters from any specific person who might feel targeted by his wit.

⛓️ Here are the specific connections:

1. Arthur
This name appears in both the short story "Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime" and the play "Lady Windermere’s Fan." The protagonist of the story is Lord Arthur Savile, while in the play, the main character’s husband is Lord Arthur Windermere.

2. Lady Windermere
In the short story, she’s a minor character who hosts parties for eccentric celebrities. In the play, she is the central protagonist navigating a moral crisis. (Windermere is also a town in Northern England!)

3. Sybil (or Sibyl)
The name appears as a central love interest in two major works:

a. Sybil Merton: The pure, patient fiancée in "Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime."

b. Sibyl Vane: The tragic actress in "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

4. Savile
While Lord Arthur Savile is a lead character, the name also references London's famous Savile Row.

⚖️ By recycling these names, Wilde created a "stock company" of characters that felt familiar to readers while shielding himself from the legal risks of Victorian-era defamation laws.

🤔 QOTD: If you were writing a story, would you base your characters on people you know? How would you tweak their names?

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#OscarWilde #LordArthurSavillesCrime #LadyWinderemersFan #ThePictureOfDorianGray
#ClassicLiterature

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Monday Flatlay

[Women's March Scavenger Hunt]

So proud was I, of knocking out March's bookish hunt right at the beginning of the month, but then @biblioteca.becca tagged me for the delightful women-centered one created by @pensivecitadel . A focus on/celebration of women? Especially in the current climate?? I am IN!

💃🏻🧘🏻‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤰🏻🏃🏻‍♀️👭🧞‍♀️🏋️‍♀️👩🏻‍🦽👯‍♀️🧚‍♀️🤹‍♀️🏌️‍♀️🧎🏾‍♀️‍➡️⛹️‍♀️🧗🏻‍♀️

📖 Woman holding a book on the cover
Book Love - Debbie Tung

💐 Woman's name in the title
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

👩🏻‍🍼A book about motherhood
Mother Mary Comes to Me - Arundhati Roy

🦪Dedicated to a woman
Dear Mr. You - Mary Louise Parker
("for my mom")

👭🏻A book about sisters
The Original Daughter - Jemimah Wei

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒Multiple generations of women
Lake Effect - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

🗣️A classic retold from a woman's point of view
Ithaca - Claire North
(Penelope's take on the Odyssey)

💖A book about female friendship
The Wilderness - Angela Flournoy

🚺A short story collection featuring women authors
Here We Are - edited by Kelly Jensen
(44 Voices Write, Speak & Draw about Feminism for the Real World)

👸

Some thoughts:
•it was not intentional but aren't these books lovely together, with a sort of autumnal vibe? Let's pretend I'm from the southern hemisphere. 🌎
•swipe to see the bookstack version, a poorly taken, hazy shot right into the sun streaming through my living room window☀️
•I've read and loved all but two of these--well, actually one I struggled through a bit. I do have favorites, so feel free to inquire.💖
•confident I'm in for a treat with the two unread, Ithaca and Here We Are. A feminist Greek myth retelling and straight-up feminism? Woo-hoo!💪🏼
•I followed the lead of many others who did this one, and used only women-authored books 📚
•check out excellent scavenges by @frenchtoast.books @drcreadsbooks @barbaras.book.obsession @northerly_heart_reads @biblioteca.becca . (apologies if I missed yours) Join us! 👀
•I just saw that Marcelo has a SECOND women's scavenger hunt! 😅

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If you've no thoughts on these books, tell me something you love about women!

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💃🏻 Women’s Scavenger Hunt 💃🏻

I did @pensivecitadel’s women- focused March scavenger hunt, which was fun and quick and easy, so for an extra challenge, I decided to use only books written by women authors. Here we go!

💃🏻 Woman holding a book on the cover
-Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan

💃🏻 Woman’s name in the title
-Emma by Jane Austen

💃🏻 A book about motherhood
-The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

💃🏻 Dedicated to a woman
-Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

💃🏻 A book about sisters
-The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

💃🏻 Multiple generations of women
-Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

💃🏻 A classic retold from a woman’s point of view
-Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou

💃🏻 A book about female friendship
-The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

💃🏻 A short story collection featuring women authors
-I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

I’ve read and loved all of these except for I Am and Betty, both of which I plan to get to soon. I’ve tagged a few of you I think might want to do this challenge, but, as always, if you see this and want to play along, please consider yourself tagged! 💃🏻

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Happy Wednesday! Hope your week is going well 😊

Thanks again to the wonderful @magic.shelf.control for tagging me to do a green stack 🤩 turns out I had more green books than I thought, so here are ten great books in different shades of green 😁💚

💚 The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
💚 Cibola Burn by James SA Corey
💚 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
💚 Earthsea: The First Four Books by Ursula K Leguin
💚 Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters
💚 Wilder Girls by Rory Power
💚 Key Lime Sky by AL Hess
💚 A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
💚 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
💚 The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri

Tagging some friends, but no pressure 🤗💚 and as always, feel free to do this even if you're not tagged!

#bookstack #greenbooks #bookishchallenge
#shelfie #bookstagram

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