Sarakas

@sarakas.bsky.social

71 Followers 95 Following

[she/her/dude] gay & tired. reading/watching/playing 🏳️‍🌈 stuff. trying to write 🏳️‍🌈 stuff. & also Birdie🐶 might show up sometimes

A screenshot of the IMDB page for the first episode of the tv show Dickinson entitled “Because I Could Not Stop” and with an episode description that says “Emily’s attempt to publish a poem sparks backlash”
Sometimes i read prose where i feel like i am being hand held through a character’s thoughts or feelings, or the scene/chapter, or even the book as a whole and i…DO NOT LIKE THAT. I do not want to be talked down to. It’s ok if I’m a lil confused when reading. It’s ok if i have to go back a paragraph or two, a page or two to recontextualize what I’ve read. It’s ok if i need or want to read sentences/paragraphs/scenes multiple times to fully or more deeply understand them. I like having to think about what I’m reading. I like having to work for it a bit. I do not want frictionless prose that slips off my brain without leaving a mark. I do not want pedantic prose. Please treat me, the reader, like an adult.
A wood elf with green tinted skin wearing sea green plate armor with oceanic etching decorating it and brown leathers beneath, holding a round shield in one hand decorated with Celtic knots. In the other hand and resting across her shoulder is a silver trident with red gems decorating its length. Her brown hair is pulled into a small bun at the base of her neck and both sides of her head are shaved. She is wearing a diadem that is just a plain metal band around her head. She is looking slightly screen left so that the vine tattoo on the left side of her head/shoulder/arm is visible. You can also just see, on the opposite cheek and shoulder, the pink remnants of old burn scars. This art was commissioned by me from the artist Aurex Aldori.
A screenshot of a weather app with a heat advisory banner at the top and forecast for the next few days showing temperatures of 97-98 degrees fahrenheit
A stack of books, spines facing outward, in a spectrum of colors with silver & purple at the top moving down through blue, green, yellow, orange, and red at the bottom. From top to bottom the books are: The Scapegracers trilogy by H.A. Clarke (The Scapegracers, The Scratch Daughters, and The Feast Makers); The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez; The Faithless by C.L. Clark; Herculine by Grace Byron; Notes From An Island by Tove Jansson; The Unbroken by C.L. Clark; Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis; The Sovereign by C.L. Clark; A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon.
A stack of books, spines facing outward. The spine colors correspond with the colors of the pride flag. From top to bottom the books are: Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin; Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram; Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan; Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo; Dionysus In Wisconsin by E.H. Lupton; Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian; The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden; Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca; Mrs. S by K. Patrick; Stag Dance by Torrey Peters; Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moïra Fowley; Spread Me by Sarah Gailey; Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin; Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt; Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark; Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner; Mere by Danielle Giles; Metal From Heaven by August Clarke
Books stacked spines out, in a rough approximation of a rainbow gradient. From top to bottom the books are: The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen; Godkiller by Hannah Kaner; Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab; Salt Slow by Julia Armfield; Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson; Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn ; Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang; Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou; Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield; She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan; Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah; Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin; A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa (Mac) Crane; Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen; Private Rites by Julia Armfield; How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler; Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
A photo of a fan-made sign at a USWNT match. It’s quite large, maybe 3ft. x 3ft. with simple black letters on a white background that simply reads “SHUT UP, ALEXI” (Extra comment by me, the poster: kudos on the lovely comma placement)
Books stacked so that they create a color gradient. From top to bottom: black, brown, light blue, white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, & purple. The books in the stack are: The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo. My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa (Mac) Crane. The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher. Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez. Grey Dog by Elliott Gish. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken. All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky. Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman. Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner. Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon.
A stack of books, spines facing outward, sitting atop a fireplace mantle. From top to bottom the books are: Boulder by Eva Baltasar. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo. Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark. Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang. Mrs. S by K. Patrick. Spear by Nicola Griffith. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The Duke by Anna Cowan. The Scapegracers by H.A. Clarke. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan. The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman. Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin. Metal From Heaven by August Clarke. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta. The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri.
Meme from 30 Rock. In the top panel Liz Lemon is saying “What a week, huh?” And in the bottom panel Jack responds “Lemon, it’s Wednesday” except I’ve edited it to say Tuesday instead.
Five books stacked on top of each other, spines out. From top to bottom: The Book of Margery Kempe; Margery Kempe by Robert GlĂźck; Matrix by Lauren Groff; Mere by Danielle Giles; Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It by Janina RamĂ­rez.
A highlighted section of text from Harrow the Ninth that reads “…a yet, at the same time, she had only lost Gideon Nav three days ago. It was the morning of the third day in a universe without her cavalier”
Sickos cartoon meme: a black and white drawing of a guy pressing his hands and face up against the outside of a window looking inside. A speech bubble above his head says, “YES…HA HA HA…YES!”
Birdie, a yellow lab, sits on the grass in front of a small azalea bush that is in full bloom with hot pink flowers as the setting sun bathes both dog and flowers in golden light. Birdie is wearing a neckerchief with a yellow background decorated with puffy white flowers reminiscent of dandelions. It looks like she is looking into the camera lens with a doggy approximation of a smile, pink tongue peeking out of her slightly open mouth, but really it’s because I’m holding a treat strategically near my phone. And don’t worry, of course Birdie got the treat, she is the bestest, prettiest girl in the whole world.
Meme of six different stick figure drawings in various poses/attitudes of unhinged behavior
Communist bugs bunny meme
Book cover for A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian Mary by Nat Cassidy
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer The Scratch Daughters by H. A. Clarke The Feastmakers by H. A. Clarke The Lamb by Lucy Rose Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moïra Fowley All Systems Red by Martha Wells Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner Fate’s Bane by C. L. Clark The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
A screenshot of a Google Alerts email with the subject line “Alecto the Ninth”
In colorful sans serif font, the book title and author’s name sit on top of a close up portion of a leafy and flowery plant.
A stack of books sitting on a fireplace mantle. From top to bottom the books are: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, trans. Megan McDowell Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval, trans. Marjam Idriss There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, trans. Keith Gessen & Anna Summers Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin, trans. Bonnie Huie Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica trans. Sarah Moses Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird by Agustina Bazterrica, trans. Sarah Moses I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, trans. Megan McDowell If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho, trans. Anne Carson Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, trans. Heather Cleary Butter by Asako Yuzuki, trans. Polly Barton
A gilded hawk mask is split in half vertically showing a woman’s face inside the mask. The woman’s face is also split in half vertically showing a black hole-like singularity inside the woman that is emitting bright light. The background is navy blue and is decorated with pinpricks of stars as well as a handful of planets. At the bottom in gradient blue to yellow font is the book title and the author’s name.
Birdie, a yellow lab, is sitting in the grass with a chicken plushie toy at her feet. She is wearing a neckerchief that is patterned with birds in flight. She’s looking at the camera with a smile and her tongue lolling out of her open mouth.
The book title in yellow serif font and the author’s name in white serif font sit on top of a bed of stemmed and thorny roses in black and blue evoking the cooler shades of moonlight as opposed to the yellow and gold of sunlight.
That one meme of the lil hand drawn guy lying on their back staring upward expressionless but with tears streaming out of their eyes in such a large volume that they’ve formed a large blue puddle in which the dude is lying
The VAR image showing that Cascarino was offside literally by a toe, thereby nullifying her dope-ass backheel goal that would have put France 2-1 up over Germany.
Silas is front and center, in profile, holding a shard of glass in one hand. He is framed by an oval mirror frame and writhin the frame is a sprawling landscape of flat land and open cloudy sky with a black orb above hanging just behind Silas’ head. Without and behind the mirror frame are various medical/scientific drawings of eyes from many different angles. The colors are all light and dark purple, gold, and black.
Murderbot, in full armor, stands atop an industrial type platform while a large ship is in flight above its head. The sky or air around Murderbot is very cloudy or smoky and the light shining through gives the sky a yellow glow.
A photograph of a Victorian style home angles upward so that the ground floor of the home is not seen. The house is painted a green-blue color with white trim. A mostly cloudy grey-blue sky covers the top half of the photo and there are a couple of leafless tree branches framing the house. The photo is distorted vertically in several places so that the roof angles and the corners of the house do not match up.
Murderbot stands front and center on the cover, in full armor and its visor opaqued. A landscape of tall skinny trees is in the backround, with a starry sky above. The sky is also prominently decorated with a ringed meteor belt positioned in an arc above the tree canopy like a rainbow. The colors are all in white, grays, and gray-greens. The book title is in red.
A screenshot from my Storygraph profile showing the books I have rated five stars so far this year. There are only two of them and they are The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling and The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica.
The book cover for The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. A metallic gold sun with accompanying radial sunbeams stands against a solid black background. A humanoid figure dressed in a nun’s habit stands in front of the sun so that it frames her head like a halo. Within the cowl of the habit is not a human face but three painted cherubic faces all mashed into the space underneath the cowl together. Their facial expressions all convey distress of some kind. The humanoid figure holds a wooden frame in front of her chest with both hands. The wooden frame is filled with honeycomb. There are a handful of honeybees flitting around both the honeycomb and the head of the humanoid figure in a nun’s habit. The title of the book is partially superimposed on top of the disc of the sun in pink stylized font. The author’s name is at the bottom in white in the same stylized font. The whole is framed in a thin metallic gold border the same color as the sun and it thickens momentarily on the left border so that “A Novel” can be written vertically in black font in the same style as the title.
Eivor from Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, in full Celtic armor, with short-cropped hair, and an axe at her hip, stands on an outcropping of rock with both sunshine and rain falling on her. Behind her is the lush green countryside of Ireland and a full rainbow arches over her. Her raven, Sýnin, is in flight above the top right part of the rainbow.
A knight stands with her gloved hands gripping the hilt of a long sword that is placed point downward. Her armor is black with an intricate gold dragon design. Behind her stands a woman with her chin resting on the knight’s shoulder. One of her hands holds the blade of the sword and the other had delicately holds the knight’s shoulder pauldron. The woman’s hair is very long and it is draped over both the knight’s shoulders. The woman has a red dragon tattoo on her face.
Plant stalks, vines, an open orchid flower, and a Venus fly trap sit against a black back ground. One closed flower bud and the Venus fly trap each have a human eye in their midst. The book title traverses the entire cover and intermingles with the plants.
A rabbit skull with earthworms crawling out of its eye sockets sits atop a pink background with a purple kaleidoscopic design. Also woven within the purple design are yellow hibiscus flowers and their green leaves and branches which also have earthworms crawling through them. The book title and author’s name are in stylized white serif font.
A still of Willem Defoe as Norman Osborne in one of the Spider-Man films (I don’t remember which one). The text at the bottom reads “You know, I’m something of a scientist myself.”
A boar in profile is set against a solid black background. The boar is distorted in places: it’s legs, it’s side and back, and its head are all stretched and warped. There are plants, flowers, and mushrooms sprouting from the boat’s body. The boar has mostly brown fur, but the things growing on it provide splashes of various colors, as does the metallic reflective effect interspersed within its fur. In the top left in large font, the book title and author name are printed in the same reflective metallic effect as on the boar’s body. In the top right in much smaller, plain font is: 10th Anniversary Edition; A Novel; Book 1 of the Southern Reach Series
Kermit the frog stares out a blurry, rain soaked window, one hand resting on the glass, evoking melancholic yearning
Ok, I’m gonna to my best to describe this cover bc it’s very beautiful. Skediceth, the god of white lies, who manifests as a hare with stag antlers on his head and owl wings on his back, is the main focus of the cover he is presented in profile and his fur, feathers, and antlers are colored in purplish- and orange-ish browns. There are a couple of trinkets dangling from his antlers. He hovers above a rocky sea: the rocks jut up from the water and are carved with strange symbols and are illuminated by a few glowing orbs. The water stretches out flat beyond them glowing with sunrise or sunset. The sky is cloudy and the sun itself is obfuscated by a large moon-like orb so that the light shines out from behind the orb in golden rays. Within the orb, written in an arc to match the circular shape of the orb is the book title: “Faithbreaker” and the author’s name: Hannah Kaner. The color palette ranges from light purple to dark blue-purple and burnished gold, orange-ish gold, and pink-ish gold.
The cover for “Faebound” by Saara El-Arifi. In black, red, and gold, the cover depicts a rolling, nearly liquid landscape with two trees breaking up from the ground. A ribbon of cloud also curves up from the ground and into the black sky. Golden leaves drift to the ground and a golden crescent moon and stars occupy the upper right corner.
The cover for “It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over” by Anne de Marcken. The silhouette of a black crow lies against a solid yellow-green background. Within the body of the crow, from its head down most of its body, are the words “It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over.” Along its tail feathers are the words “Anne de Marcken.”
The cover for “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan. The cover depicts a pastoral, small town scene. In the foreground are a few houses, some trees, a cart, and a handful of people on the slope of a hill. In the background the landscape continues in rolling hills until they become a mountain that touches the blue sky. Everything is covered in a blanket of white snow. On the left is a winding river. At the top of the cover a black bird is in flight.
The cover for “Coup de Grâce” by Sofia Ajram. The colors are gray, black, and white with red accents. The cover depicts three vignettes of somewhat M.C. Escher-like impossible staircases. In the center vignette there is a silhouette of a man standing at the top of a staircase with the rungs of a ladder above his head.
The cover of “The Unworthy” by Agustina Bazterrica. A woman in a nun’s habit stands with her face and both her arms lifted toward the sky. The woman is in black and white that fades into the color red at the bottom of her habit. She stands against a solid black background. The words “The Unworthy,” “A Novel,” and “Agustina Bazterrica” form a halo-like circle around the woman.
The cover for “Boulder” by Eva Baltasar. A black and white painting depicts a woman holding a lit cigarette to her lips.
The cover for “The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar. A winding, river-like design, curving back and forth multiple times, as it goes from the top left corner down to the bottom right corner, sits atop a white background. Within the curved line is a glimpse of a pastoral landscape in hues of green and gold and brown. Woven within the curved line are flowers with light purple, orange, and pink petals.
A stack of seven short novels and novellas sitting atop my fireplace mantle in front of a mirror with their spines facing outward. From top to bottom, the books are: “Boulder” by Eva Baltasar, “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan, “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman, “It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over” by Anne de Marcken, “Coup de Grâce” by Sofia Ajram, “The Unworthy” by Augustina Bazterrica, and last but certainly not least, “The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar.
The cover for “Pink Slime” by Fernanda Tría. The cover is an abstract image in reds and pinks meant, I think, to evoke a substance swirling around in water or some other liquid. However, the color choice also makes the image reminiscent of a marbled cut of meat. At the bottom right corner, the swirls of light pink against the red background resolve into the image of a bird with its wings spread.
Book cover for The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, book 4 of The Wheel of Time series. The cover depicts (who I assume to be) Rand, Mat, & Egwene sitting & standing around a cook fire in the Aiel Waste. The oranges & reds of sunset can be seen between tall red rock structures. Rand is sitting on the steps of a covered wagon that is decorated with paintings of flowers. A couple of Aielman are in the background tending to a couple of horses.
The cover for “The Dragon Reborn” by Robert Jordan, the third book in the Wheel of Time series. The cover image depicts Rand Al’Thor standing in a room mostly populated by large red stone columns as he reaches up above his head for a sword that seems to be made of pure light. In the foreground at the bottom left, two other young men, who I assume are Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybarra, look on. Tbh, all three boys are drawn as very similarly looking white dudes, but I’m pretty sure the other two are Mat and Perrin. (No offense to the cover artist.)
Book cover for “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn. At the top of the cover, “Hungerstone” is written in bright green letters and the “paint” of the U drips down until it nearly touches the face of the woman on the cover. At the bottom of the cover “a novel” is written in white cursive font, and below that “Kat Dunn” is written in all caps, once again in the bright green color. The majority of the cover is a depiction of a woman lying on her back draped across some sort of settee or couch. Her head and both arms are hanging over the edge of the settee on the left side of the cover. She is wearing a white short sleeve dress with a gold brooch pinned just above her breasts. Her throat and the top of her chest are bared to the light. Her skin is pale except for a blush on the cheek that is turned to the light and a slight pink color in her lips. Her eyes are closed and her mouth is slightly open. Her blonde hair tumbles to the floor. Her arm in the foreground of the picture hangs down so that her knuckles brush against the ground. The cushion of the settee is white although there is a blanket draped over it in colors of gold and pink and red. The rest of the colors surrounding the woman are all warm dark browns and reds. There is a light shining on the red drapes behind the woman and a curiously shaped shadow can be seen blocking part of the light.
The view from my front stoop. The concrete walkway and side wall and the road are all wet from rain and melted snow. But the grass of my front yard, as well as the neighbor’s yard and roof and car across the street all show a light powdery dusting of snow. In the air you can also see snow still actively falling.
Book cover: “The Lamb” by Lucy Rose
Four books on a table in a 2x2 grid with their covers face up. The top left book is “Little Ones” by Grey Wolfe Lajoie. The top right book is “Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman. The bottom left book is “The Lamb” by Lucy Rose. The bottom right book is “The Obscene Bird of Night” by José Donoso.
The cover for “The Witcher: The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski
The cover of “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” by John Wiswell
“But if you was to ask me to point out the most uncivilized area on the face of this globe I would point here—“ “Watch sharp,” said Doctor Copeland. “You’re out in the ocean.” Jake turned the globe again and pressed him blunt, grimy thumb on a carefully selected spot. “Here. These thirteen states. I know what I’m talking about. I read books and I go around. I been in every damn one of these thirteen states. I’ve worked in every one. And the reason I think like I do is this: We live in the richest country in the world. There’s plenty and to spare for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great, true principle—the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of that start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars—and hundreds of thousands of people who don’t get to eat. And here in these thirteen states the exploitation of human beings is so that—that it’s a thing you got to take in with your own eyes. In my life I seen things that would make a man go crazy. At least one third of all Southerners live and die no better off than the lowest peasant in any European Fascist state. The average wage of a worker on a tenant farm is only seventy-three dollars per year. And mind you, that’s the average! The wages of sharecroppers run from thirty-five to ninety dollars per person. And thirty-five dollars a year means just about ten cents for a full day’s work. Everywhere there’s pellagra and hookworm and anaemia. And just plain, pure starvation. But!” Jake rubbed his lips with the knuckles of his dirty fist. Sweat…