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Anders Holm recommended Graduation by Kanye West in Music (curated)

 
Graduation by Kanye West
Graduation by Kanye West
2007 | Rhythm And Blues
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This album was like, ‘Yup, he knows exactly what he’s doing.’ Every album that he does is going to be dope. ‘Good Life’ is a classic to me forever. You put that CD on in any situation and things will start jumping. People will sweat that College Dropout, it was cool. I got a lot of songs on there that I like. Late Registration was real hot. He let people know how good he was with production on that album. He had songs that kind of trailed off and he could do his thing and there was no one rapping. On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, to me, you can dial it back. People sweated him for doing his thing and sure, do your thing. But I don’t know, three of those songs I could of have gone with ending 60 seconds earlier."

Source
  
The Amphitheater of Souls
The Amphitheater of Souls
Patrick Bryce Wright | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A step out my comfort zone but a very good one!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Cian is sent on a journey to find out who or what is causing all the deaths in his village.

I really enjoyed this! It's a step out my comfort zone, and a very good one at that.

I'd class it as high fantasy. Very Tolkien-esque, with an epic journey, lives at stake, elves, dwarves, centsaurs, sea serpents on the rampage and a madman, messing with dark blood magic.

Throw in a slow burn sweet romance, between Cian and his guide, Thanyon, and you've got a near perfect book!

Only Cian gets a say, though, and at points, he had a lot to say.

But a fabulous read.

4 good stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
A Blade So Black
A Blade So Black
L.L. McKinney | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
9
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I've seen the point brought up that so many fantasy protagonists have really neglectful parents. Who lets their kid be gone for an unknown amount of time doing something "important" that their kid refuses to tell them about because it's a "secret"? This book makes a point of how NOT neglectful Alice's mother is. The blurb calls her overprotective, but really it's just normal protective. Alice's mom just wants to know her daughter hasn't been shot by the police when she's gone for 24 hours and not answering her phone, that seems normal to me! I actually enjoyed how that was different than a lot of fantasy YA, even if it's really a small sideplot.

In the main plot, Alice is a Dreamwalker, wielding Figment Blades and her own Muchness to kill the Nightmares that try to cross from Wonderland to our world. Her mentor is Addison Hatta, an exile from Wonderland who's been charged to guard his Gateway and train new Dreamwalkers. Along the way we meet two more Dreamwalkers, more exiled Wonderlanders, and learn a bit about the war in Wonderland and why they're exiled but still charged with such an important mission as guiding the Gateways between our world and theirs.

About the only thing I didn't like about this book was how it left so many questions unanswered at the end. We got a cliffhanger to lead us into the sequel, A Dream So Dark, but it isn't due out until September! I'm also wondering where the Cheshire Cat is - he's too instrumental a character to leave out, I would think - but I have a few possible ideas about where the author is going with that, so I'm anxious for the sequel, to see if I'm right.

A Blade So Black is a very unique take on Wonderland by a POC author, starring a POC heroine. There's also an adorable lesbian couple as side characters. With minority racial representation, a fairy tale base, and a splash of LGBT+ rep, this book checked a lot of the boxes I look for in my fantasy. It wasn't the best YA fantasy that I've read in the last year, but it was definitely fun!

You can read all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com