My latest book review covers The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros—a queer Jewish historical fantasy novel on possession, life, and death.
Regal Reads
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jewish representation
In my latest book review, I tackle Dahlia Adler’s newest novel, Cool for the Summer—a Jewish LGBTQ+ narrative about growing into yourself.
So apparently now you’re allowed to add 10+ photos to an Instagram post, but it would break my pattern from last year, so two photos really means twelve. because it’s my best boy’s 12th birthday today!!! #happybirthday to my banana, my boo boo, my bagel, my sugars, and the bestest and feistiest boy in the whole world, Simba!! it’s insane how you’re 12—where did time go?? So much has happened in the last year and you’re the most courageous and bravest and strongest boy I know. I love you forever and ever 🩷🩷🩷 #dogsofinstagram #dogstagram #poodlesofinstagram
This year I thought about waiting for Christmas to post on your birthday until I realized that I already did that last year. So unfortunately this is going to be a repeat of last year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY @foster.victoria!! I’m so proud of all you have accomplished and I’m so honored to be your friend and I can’t wait to brag about how one of closest friends is getting her PhD. I promise next year I’ll post on Christmas Eve eve to shake things up. Happy belated birthday and I hope you had a wonderful day. I miss you so much, manifesting we WILL have a new photo for next year! #happybirthday
I cannot stress enough how exciting it is that after five years WE HAVE A NEW PICTURE!!! and now it’s your birthday, so it’s time to use the picture, happy birthday @denasquirrel! I had the best time seeing you again in person (Simba did too), talking almost every day just isn’t the same. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and a great year, love you and miss you as always 🩷🩷🩷 #happybirthday
this is getting ridiculous. I decided to use one of our terrible quality photos to represent the time where we didn’t have pictures together. Except now we do have a lot of pictures together, but I’ve used them all for your previous birthdays. which means we’ve gotta reunite. it’s serious. Happy 28th birthday, @ben.leinweber! This is going to be our year. I can feel it. I hope you have a wonderful day and an excellent year and I miss you and I hope to see you soon. #happybirthday y
hey, instagram! you don’t allow more than ten photos per post. what am I supposed to do for my boy’s eleventh birthday? I guess I’ll have to start with one again.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTEST BOY IN THE WHOLE WORLD SIMBA!!! I can’t believe you’ve been in my life for over a decade. I can’t imagine life without you, it wouldn’t be the same. you never fail to put a smile on my face regardless of how I’m feeling or what the circumstances are. thank you for being you. and for landing in my life almost eleven years ago. here’s to many more 🥳 (b’ezrat hashem 🙏) #happybirthday #dogsofinstagram #dogstagram #poodlesofinstagram
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY @foster.victoria!! I know your birthday was yesterday but I decided to do something a little different this year. you’ve heard of victoria’s birthday > christmas eve, now get ready for victoria’s birthday > christmas day! you’re one of my best friends and I’d like to think even if I did celebrate christmas, your day would always be more important and mean more to me. I hope you had a wonderful day and even better year, love you and miss you 🫶 #happybirthday
✨ meet the bookstagrammer ✨
I figured one of these is long overdue since I started this bookstagram a while ago, then went MIA, and now I’m trying to be active again. so why not an introductory post that includes some of the books I’m currently reading? hi, I’m sarah, and I’m a reader and a writer. for as long as I can remember, books has been a passion of mine. I usually read 5-7 books at a time! (but that’s because I have adhd and it’s difficult to concentrate only on one.) I love all kinds of books, but especially fantasy and sci-fi. I’m always looking for more diverse books to read, so I welcome recommendations! the books I’m reading right now include the merciless ones by @namina.forna, the priory of the orange tree by @say_shannon, a cruel and fated light by @paper.ashley, a dance with dragons by george r.r. martin, and the the red pyramid by rick riordan (latter two not pictured since they’re ebooks). I’m enjoying them all so far, and I highly recommend! especially the books pictured. expect lots of jewish and genderfluid lesbian book related posts 🩷.
I’d love to get to know more of you, so drop your bookstagrams in the comment section! I also have a website where I write blog posts. I haven’t posted in a long time, but I hope to post something this week about the books I’m reading. in the meantime, you should definitely have a look at what I’ve written in the past!
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#themercilessones #deathless #naminaforna #acruelandfatedlight #hollowstarsaga #ashleyshuttleworth #theprioryoftheorangetree #samanthashannon #fantasybooks #fantasy #lgbtqreads #diversebooks #diverseauthors #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booknerd #booklover #bookcommunity #bookblogger #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #readstagram #bookrecommendations #meetthebookstagrammer
✨ #jewishbookstagramtour 2023 ✨
it’s been a long time since I’ve posted to #bookstagram. but hopefully this is the first of many posts and I finally get back in the groove of things. I’m so excited to be part of this for the third year in a row. This year, I wanted to talk about a book series that’s near and dear to my heart, one that makes me feel seen as a queer Jew.
The #grishaverse by @lbardugo is made up of a trilogy, two duologies, and several companion novels. it’s a world of magic called the small science, practiced by people called grisha. each series within this universe covers many different themes, including faith, oppression, morality, war, abuse, and more. leigh deals with all of these themes with such grace and care. did you know the grisha are partly based off of the Jewish resistance from WW2? I headcanon all grisha as Jewish because of this. my favorite character in this universe is Alina Starkov. she is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and taught me so much about hope, faith, finding yourself, true power, and overcoming hardships and abuse. learning to love yourself for who you are. there are plenty of other characters I love, but she holds a special place in my heart.
I know there’s a lot going on around the world right now. I try to be vocal about it in my instagram stories. but I’m very private with my grief because it’s always how I process. I throw myself into something instead. and as I grieve for the jewish and non jewish lives lost and kidnapped on Oct 7, I think it’s wrong to retaliate the way Israel has on Gaza. it isn’t fair to the thousands of innocent civilians. people are being slaughtered in the name of Jewish safety, and that isn’t okay with me. as a Jew, I don’t think it’s okay. we must do everything in our power to get the hostages back. but that should never include more violence and murder. two wrongs have never made a right. and it reminds me of how the Darkling in the grishaverse turned his back on his own people by slaughtering innocents, selling grisha children to the king, leaving grisha + non grisha to die. he allied with fjerda, a nation committing genocide against (continued in comments)
