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The Dancing Universe

@dancinguniverse / dancinguniverse.tumblr.com

I binge hard on fandoms. In my other life, I'm a scientist.
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2020 in Books

Not in order that I actually read them this year, and I think I might be missing a few. I read mostly library Kindle books this year, and I suspect I missed a few that I read in physical form. I spent a lot of this year, proportionally, reading either Animorphs or The Witcher books, and I declare it a good use of my quarantine reading. 

I didn’t separate out physical books from Kindle this year, but re-reads have an asterisk, and there’s reviews for stuff I found worth highlighting. 

Mostly, looking back at this list, I remember reading most of the Animorphs during a dark phase in my daughter’s sleep journey, where I would sit in a dark room and rock her for literally a few hours a night, between bedtime and middle of the night wakings. We did sleep training, and I am very pleased to have finished my 2020 reading in my own bed, with my daughter asleep in hers. 2020 had a few wins!

#books#2020 in review
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I don’t want to jinx things, but you know how everyone wants to live on a commune with their friends? It looks like we’re buying a fancy house on 3 acres with another couple and living the dream. It’s not a farm commune, but it is a stunningly gorgeous house and we’re super excited to share it with friends and raise our kids together and live ten minutes from our other friends. 

#it turns out I am the 1%#whoops#if it helps we all feel like imposters in this place#it's TOO nice#we are VERY excited
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reblogged
ultraballantine-deactivated2022
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wrenhavenriver

tumblr’s collective composure was hanging on by a single fucking thread and it was supernatural of all things that got out the scissors 

is anyone surprised

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randomfandomshitpost

do they still do it? does the supernatural fandom still have gif to offer in this trying times?

SPN Fandom! Do you still have a gif to offer us?

I shall chant.

Supernatural

Supernatural

Supernatural

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visions-of-fantasy

Ask and you shall receive

…ngl it’s weirdly comforting to know y'all still have a gif for everything. Thanks.

#Yes I know something else just happened#I processed most of my feelings on that yesterday morning.#I don't know if I can process this one#maybe I'm deflecting#who knows??
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dancinguniverse

To Read

@semperama tagged me in 10 books I’m planning to read this year. Fun! A lot of these are things sitting on my Libby Hold list.

  1. Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I missed this when it came out, but I just read her newer book, Starless Sea, and fell head over heels in love, so I’m really looking forward to this. It actually just came up for me today at the library.
  2. Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski. The first (I think) in The Witcher series. What can I say? The show got me hooked.
  3. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. I actually have no idea what this is about, but a good friend of mine recced it very enthusiastically, so I’m looking forward to it.
  4. Call Down the Hawk, by Maggie Stiefvater. I enjoyed the Raven Cycle, though it wasn’t life changing or anything for me. Still, I liked it enough that I’m giving this a try.
  5. The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. I can’t tell if I’m going to love this or think it’s boilerplate, but it keeps showing up on my rec lists, so I’m giving it a whirl. I’m just so dubious of popular books. They’re often popular for a reason! But sometimes they suck. It is a great title though.
  6. Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer. Feels like a classic, and while I kind of expect anxiety from reading it, I want to experience it.
  7. Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente. This has actually been on my To Read list for a long time, and the wait list is always epic on it so I haven’t bothered, but I want to actually get on the list, because it comes highly recommended. 
  8. Empire of Gold, by S. A. Chakraborty. I loved the first two in this series, and the third is coming out this summer. HYPE!
  9. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I have no idea how, but somehow I’ve never read this book? For some reason having a baby made me think I should catch up on childhood classics I missed.
  10. Animorphs 54: The Beginning. Actually the last book in the series, and I’m listing just this one because I’m roughly halfway through a total readthrough (in between other things), and looking forward to completing it. I’d read a lot, but not all of them, when I was younger, and they hold up well!
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dancinguniverse

Ooh. I haven’t been on tumblr much, obviously, but I was looking back at what I have posted, and at least I’m making progress on books! I read the first five books on this list and loved all of them -- Memory called Empire and Priory of the Orange Tree were both especially awesome, though Priory had some odd pacing issues at the end, imo. Still worth it. The Witcher series is fun, and I’ve read both the short story collections and the first novel, just starting the second. 

And I finished my Animorphs re-read! What a trip! They hold up shockingly well, though the pop culture references are adorably 90s. I don’t feel like they get enough credit for really being ahead of the game in the semi-post-apocalyptic-kids-fighting-for-their-lives YA book category. Talk about the impact of war, and Animorphs was doing cool stuff way before Suzanne Collins came along. 

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It turns out that I very much want to be a wild woman with my baby tied to my back while I garden and tend my house and yard, but in reality it’s stinking hot outside and there are mosquitoes and my child has irrationally long arms that she will thrust into anything dirty/spiny/sharp/hot that she can reach, which is somehow everything. 

How are her arms so long? She is still a baby! I can tell because she has no sense about the things she wants to stick her hands into! 

#things they didn't tell you about parenting#inverse T-Rex arms
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To Read

@semperama tagged me in 10 books I’m planning to read this year. Fun! A lot of these are things sitting on my Libby Hold list.

  1. Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I missed this when it came out, but I just read her newer book, Starless Sea, and fell head over heels in love, so I’m really looking forward to this. It actually just came up for me today at the library.
  2. Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski. The first (I think) in The Witcher series. What can I say? The show got me hooked.
  3. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. I actually have no idea what this is about, but a good friend of mine recced it very enthusiastically, so I’m looking forward to it.
  4. Call Down the Hawk, by Maggie Stiefvater. I enjoyed the Raven Cycle, though it wasn’t life changing or anything for me. Still, I liked it enough that I’m giving this a try.
  5. The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. I can’t tell if I’m going to love this or think it’s boilerplate, but it keeps showing up on my rec lists, so I’m giving it a whirl. I’m just so dubious of popular books. They’re often popular for a reason! But sometimes they suck. It is a great title though.
  6. Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer. Feels like a classic, and while I kind of expect anxiety from reading it, I want to experience it.
  7. Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente. This has actually been on my To Read list for a long time, and the wait list is always epic on it so I haven’t bothered, but I want to actually get on the list, because it comes highly recommended. 
  8. Empire of Gold, by S. A. Chakraborty. I loved the first two in this series, and the third is coming out this summer. HYPE!
  9. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I have no idea how, but somehow I’ve never read this book? For some reason having a baby made me think I should catch up on childhood classics I missed.
  10. Animorphs 54: The Beginning. Actually the last book in the series, and I’m listing just this one because I’m roughly halfway through a total readthrough (in between other things), and looking forward to completing it. I’d read a lot, but not all of them, when I was younger, and they hold up well!
#tagging anyone who wants!#reading lists
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So I wanted to buy more locally, but it turns out that a pandemic is a great motivator. Thanks to shortages in the grocery store, I now have a subscription service with a local coffee roaster, a giant bag of flour from a local miller, and all our beer is being delivered by local breweries.

#focusing on the postive
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In these times of turmoil, I have succumbed to the allure of cute animals and farming. Be my Animal Crossing NH friend! 8352-4370-9431

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