Book Reccs - Blog Posts

Favorite decolonialist authors and books?

Notebook of a Return to the Native Land + Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire

Black Skin, White Masks + Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

History of Pan-African Revolt by C.L.R. James

Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Muhammad Iqbal

Sociology of Islam by Ali Shariati

Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez Sayegh

Groundings with My Brothers by Walter Rodney

Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América by Rodolfo Kusch

Philosophy of Liberation by Enrique Dussel

Black Metamorphoses by Sylvia Wynter

Basic Call to Consciousness by the Haudenosaunee

Native Science by Gregory Cajete

Ch'ixinakax utxiwa by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui

As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Peace, Power, Righteousness by Taiaiake Alfred

Red Skin, White Masks by Glen Coulthard

Autonomy is in Our Hearts by Dylan Eldridge Fitzwater

Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra by the Sixth Commission of the EZLN

It's come to my attention I've posted a post where I show my fic word count from what I read last year and did not explain where I got the number!

BOOKTOWER

An absolutely amazing website I discovered this last year on tik tok. You can add fanfics, books/graphic novels/manga, and webcomics to this website, and organize them into customizable bookshelves to keep track of what you've read!

And that's not all!! By adding in the required information about each readable you add to your library, it gives you statistics on what you've read!

I of course have yet to add all my fanfics I've read on AO3, I've only added the fics I've read throughout 2024 and 2025, so my data is not yet complete, but there is a reason for that! Around mid February, Booktower is coming out with a 'Wrapped' of our readables! So those people who have no computer to use the Google spreadsheets to make your own AO3 Wrapped?(I've got a computer I'm just lazy) We gotcha covered!

All In all, Booktower is a lovely website that I'm so proud to be in the community discord. If you happen to sign up and join the discord, come say hi and that I sent you!

(And yes, I've read more than 3 books in my life, I've just prioritized adding fanfiction to the site over real books. Trust me, my future library is up to 300 books by now)

I'll link my booktower to anyone who's curious what the tower is like! (Don't judge my organization, it's better than my bookmarks folder on AO3)

[WARNING my Booktower I'm sharing does contain explicit works, and subjects not for children's consumption, please watch yourself for triggers in any fics you see fit to open based off my tower even if you're an adult. Reading tags is important, stay safe all!]

https://app.mybooktower.com/tower/simplyanxio

Please comment on this post if you join booktower! I'd love to know if I've persuaded anyone to join!

no literallyy, need some recs pls. i need a book that’ll make me stare at the wall and reflect for hours after i finish it

i need to find a beautiful novel to read & change my life

When you see that one book that makes you doubt the rest of the recommendations

Was thinking about, Cure for the Common Universe last night...

Almost cried.

Would recommend.

Book review

wow I’m not even a full 15 pages into The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and I already ship Dorian x Basil wholeheartedly. I haven’t shipped anyone this fast since Larry Stylinson and Wolfstar

Sometimes a person tries to confess their love for their enemy and comes up with profound shit like, "Because I'd find you even if this entire divided world worked together for once just to tear us apart, your soul and mine are made of the same stuff, and we'll have to change atom to atom to be anything other than each others. Because even if you tired to stab me it'll only work to cut of some ancient infected wound, because you'll always be my savior, even if you try to hurt me"

Other times they say shit like, "Because maybe I like your stupid face."

"Remember when I said I would rather cut of my own lips than kiss you?Yeah, I might have been a little wrong."

"Maybe I don't hate being around you when you're not trying to kill me."

Wow, the first confession turned out pretty good. I'm trying to reach 500 follows pls halp

I had the dumbest fukin idea but consider?!! We all love the hero and villain being soulmates kay? But what what if they are not, they just have the same soulmate. Like person C randomly finds both the city's most famous hero and infamous villain vying for their attention. Living that y/n life cause they're their soulmate.

Is your villain the type to nobly give them up cause they deserve better. OR,

*Hero gives them flowers and chocolates* *Villain finds 4-foot Bouquet and cratefull chocolates to one up them* again and again until they're stuck at c's lawndoor together because they were both running to enter first with a teddy bears bigger than them screaming "get your vanilla ass away from them you wet cabbage" as they push the hero face away from them while struggling too free themselves.

C just sighs in disappointment while sipping their morning coffee and probably goes on a childhood friends to lovers arc with the boy next door who eventually cuts them out from the door

Kindly follow for more thrash on yo dash

The hero shows up to foil the villains plan but instead end up fighting that other hero, their rival, who also showed up to fight them. While the vilain presumably drinks a margarita, both confused, amused and carrying out their plan before their bickering ends.

A: "I'll handle handle this, you can go home and bake cookies or something."

B: "Really?And tell me how you plan to fight a supervillain. The power of friendship?"

A: *sigh* "Can we just be civil about this."

B: "No we cannot you stole my binkin' promotion"

A: "Fine.I'll let you help me defeat them. Deal?

B: "bish, excuse me."

Elf is on the shelf, follow for trash to be on the dash

But the villain and the anti-hero bitching about the popular hero is like the funniest shit ever

"Have you seen them? Blond hair, white costume, holier than thou attitude?"

*deadpan* "Oh, wow, do all heroes have a giant stick up their ass."

"You've kidnapped the mayer? And yet I'm the anti-hero." " What a kiss ass huh?"

"And I thought Villain's monologues were intolerable, do excuse me while I bludgeon myself."

"So you're working with hero now? Being an anti-hero really requires sacrifices huh?" *Grabbing a screwdriver to start working beside villain on their death ray* "Some things are just not worth it"

Follow for trash on the dash

But every cliche hits harder when it's enemies to lovers tho.

Friends to lovers, "The view is beautiful" *not looking at the view* "Yes it is." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

But that in enemies to lovers- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The *grabs hand* "we need to run!" Close proximity with your nemesis? Sign me up

Hiding in small spaces? Uhhh, yesss!!

The hand on the mouth because their making too much noise? Hmm, good stuff.

Making it enemies to lovers just adds so much internal tension, I'll always stan

Kindly follow for more trash on your dash

The stage between enemies and lovers where they VEHEMENTLY deny their feelings is appreciated a lot, but it still deserves more appreciation like who thought like :/ so these two people okay? And get this they hate each other, kay? But, and here's where it gets crazy they start having FEELINGS for each other! And they do not want to!! Crazy! ;/ Like who thought a person just failing so badly at insulting thier crush will be the funniest shit ever?! AND THEY WERE RIGHT!!

The internal monologue is just like

"look at them humming to themselves! Aww—! Like an idiot! Foolish!! Disgusting shit!!!"

"I wanna do things to them... I mean Violence! Murder! That's what I wanna do, target practice, fish bait!... And now I'm talking to myself "

Kindly follow for more mostly good content on your dash

Okay, so most heroes and villians are treated like celebrities in their worlds right? With fandoms and media coverage and everything? So, whyyy isn't it used more in their ships? The opportunities are close to endless.

Being a popular presence in each other's identity conspiracy boards.

Fighting each other's fans online cause 'they suck, why do you like them. I totally don't get it.'

Getting jealous because they're articles about them fighting other heroes/villains.

Dating scandals. Dating scandals. Dating scandals.

How do they respond to their in world shippers?

The heroes being horrified cause their 'I may respect their noble goal but I still oppose everything they stand for' speech came out a little thirstier then they wanted. And the villian being absolutely over the sun about it.

aNd so so much more

Kindly follow for more mostly good content

Angry love confessions! Okay,

Shouting "Because I love you! You big idiot!" in the middle of arguments.

The HuRT in "Why do you care anyway."

The repeatedly screaming i hateyou, I hateyou I hate you and then stopping looking them in the eye and immediately passionately kissing then?!!

Getting your senses back and like no no no what did we do.

Or, Whispering "I am still mad at you" in between kisses.

Just angry love confessions.

Kindly follow for more mostly good content

If your villain disguises themselve to seduce the hero, they legally have only two options going forward.

They fall in love with them in disguise but the hero is 100% not interested, saying they are in love with someone else, unbeknownst to them the one they're in love with them is their villainous form (because the hero has read one too many enemies to lovers books)

Or, or, The hero IS interested, and the villain vigorously denies their own feelings telling themselves it's all part of the plan, until on a date, the hero does something for them that they'd never do for them as a villain (I watched this drama about basketball rivals where A always wins until B plays in disguise and they let them win and they staight up loose it because they're so hurt, it still lives in my head rent free) and so the villain angrily reveals their identity. But the hero is just like, 'duh, I knew. Literally all you did was put on a wig, dumbass' (even better if their shapeshifter or something so they didn't have any way of knowing but still they just kNoW, you know)

Okay but who invented the trope of the 'hero's side kidnaps the Villains very sweet,meek, kind sidekick/friend/relative for a hostage situation but turns out they're actually scarier than the villain' and have they been awarded a noble peace prize yet. (Bonus points if they're very bossy and the villian is low-key scared of them. Also if they're very old.)

"Hello Villain, we've kidnapped x—" "I'm sorry." "Well you should be and uh," " No, I'm sorry for you, good luck." *Hangs up*

Hero "We don't want anybody to get hurt." "Me either," *standing up already having undid their bindings* "So if you'll just step aside."

*Tiny person dressed in bloodstained pastel colours and floral designs walks into villains lair with a single fork in hand* "Villain! How long does it take to pick up a single person from the hero's, I had to walk all the way over here!" Villain*sweating* "I'm sorry."

Enemies to lovers-: taken by surprise in a ball edition

A fancy ball but one party uses it gain advantage and surrounding everybody

Everyone rushing to loosen their ties and take of their jackets and tearing slits in their ball gowns and pulling out the hidden weapons that they definitely weren't supposed to bring

Bonus points if one pulls one out from behind their waistband and make eye contact with the other pulling one strapped on their thigh

Group combat when someone shoots at the ceiling to make the chandelier fall on one of them and the other runs to save them seconds before the impact,

Bonus points if it's the villainous one and they do the annoyed 'I can't believe I'm doing this' growl before running

Post Saving eye contact

When they're fighting and they perfectly matched and in sync and you can just see they'll be such a power couple.

During combat eye contact and banter

I just really like eye contact okay

When one is about to fall back during combat and their opponent grabs their wrist and/or their teammate comes up behind them to catch them.

Please follow and reblog

I found a new trope and I'm high on it. Hear me out. Grumpy bad character gets stuck with sunshine character in his property or company or whatever. And it predictably leads to bonding moments™ like sitting huddled together and talking about random things or sunshine grabbing grumpy's hand to guide them around in the darkness, or opening up about their pasts or just playing their favourite music whatever.

But here's the kicker, after they're out and grumpy's assistant is like reporting to them like, " I'll fire them all duh, because you're big bad grumpy blah blah" and they just do this smitten little secretive smile and be like "Naw, it's fine" or alternatively they start coughing and try to be nonchalant about it like 'it's whatever, I don't mind, you can let them go'

And the assistant is like *shocked pikachu face* 😲

Favourite doomed romance of the day is the mortal lover dies tragically and immortal waits centuries for them to be reborn (or both die and are reborn) only for them to already be enemies with solid ground for hating them before they find out it's them.

The absolute emotional destruction is unmatched.

Pls help me grow by rebloging and following

The hero refuses to celebrate their birthday with their friends because they think the villain is planning something and they have to find out what. When the villain finds out about this they put their schemes aside to plan a party for hero. They lead hero on a treasure hunt and when hero thinks they're finally walking into the destination of villains plans, they are surprised by all their friends and family gathered for their birthday (All of whom agreed to help villain because quite frankly, they ship it.)

Pls follow to help me grow

Warning- Angst ahead

when the villian and hero couple are in front of the bigger villian that villian worked under and in deep danger and have to pretend to fight to avoid said danger, clumsily throwing punches at each other with with stiff hands, holding a dagger to the throat but it's trembling badly, subconsciously getting close to each and trying to touch in any way for some sort of comfort, fervently glancing at the bigger villian to see how they're reacting, the villians crippling guilt in feeling responsible, trying to communicate with eyes and form a plan but their mind can't work over how scared they are, more for the other person than them

Yeah I want that

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" I suppose I did love you once, too far back in time in to even matter now, if not for some deflected queens." She allowed at last, letting her shoulders drop in a shrugging motion as if was no more than mere weather talk.

"You-"

" Deflected?" Iris squinted her eyes behind the glasses.

"Queen! One Queen! The other is a queen consort! " the 'king' took no time to point out. "And how does this matter in searching for them anyway. He turned to the tracker observing them with her lips pursed.

"Seriously?! You? the ice queen? You loved me?!! Like Love love" The other girl got in before she was interrupted by,

"Are we quite sure deflected is the right word right now?"

"And why the fuck does their sappy saphic ballad matter here?"

The tracker, who had asked the question, was still watching with serious looking eyes, " Perhaps, it doesn't. But," Her face broke into a huge grin then, eyes bright now and put up her finger. "These two would be soo cute together, even their names go together, Elli and Aine, Elliaine. Ah, You can name your child that!" She was almost squealing in delight at the prospect when she finished.

"They can't have a child, they are both girls." The king—oh, my mistake forgive me, the 'king' being his usual infuriating self did not disappoint.

"oh, sod off. " This was the tracker, Lelia.

"Elliaine, is my name."

" Well, you should shouldn't be using Elli then, it literally means Old, I didn't say anything cause I thought it'd be rude. And work on your grammar, deflected does not fit—."

"Shut up, Iris, no one cares." The 'King', whose name I forgot because my constant need to mock his title, snapped, " And You!" He turned to Leila, " Do your fucking job and find the goddamn Queens, Queen! One Queen!."

" Oh, no no." She replied, making sure to dramatize her every movement, "I can't do that, because you see, I'm just here to stall you till they got far enough away."

A tence silence hung unbroken in the air. Well, unbroken until someone proclaimed, "Defected! The word is defected!" And the 'king' shouted for the guards.

"Throw her in the dungeons!" He roared to the bowing guards.

They stood there for a moment, unable to decide if he had the authority to imprison the queen's dear friend.

He fumed even redder {Purple more like if we being honest} a feat previously thought impossible, "By king Ophion's orders!" Ah, Ophion, that was his name.

He was far too busy angrily whispering with Elli, his least detested member of his and the queen's council, to see Leila smile as she was led down.

Two freed, one to go.

And she was already on the way to her.

----------------------

Should I write more of this? Pls follow to support.

This blog is now apparently dedicated to enemies to lovers connoisseur-ing. I mean I'm not complaining but still

Pls follow for dumb things

We all love our cocky suave flirty villians and our goofy rambly crack energy hero who basically runs on caffeine and sass, hasn't slept in 72hours because 'the latex clad chipmunk can't take a fucking break from trying to fucking take over the world'

But also consider— the opposite.

The hero who keeps flirting with the villian and teasing them and pushing their buttons and only realising after they go too far and the villians face darkens and they go oh shit

The villian tries to blow up a restaurant cause they said you too when the waitress there said enjoy your meal once and now it's the only way to escape the embarassment

— "How the fuck did you survive that!"

" Can't a guy destroy the city in peace around here!"

Enemies to lovers things that make me go ahHh— Angst edition promt

After being vulnerable with each other and revealing their deep secrets, something brings them back on opposite sides and they're fighting (combat optional but preferred) and the villian's so frustrated that they're fighting when they don't want to but because they have issues™ they react by trying to hurt hero more than them, pushing them farther and farther making them angrier, until they say that one thing and the hero stops and then their face visibly crumbles, looking shaken and hurt and betrayed, BETRAYED. And because the villian sucks they feel satisfied for a sec before it truly settles and they realise what they did and immediately start to regret it but it's too late the hero saw them be pleased. It's already over for the hero.

okay, Greek mytho or mytho/fairy tale retellings but with versions other than than the most popular one,

like hades and presophone but with the older version, where shes called kore meaning little girl because she's someone so sinister people are afraid to say her name, posiedon is the god of the underworld and hades some random guy who may and maynot be her love intrest in her quest to overthrowing posidon

aphrodite where shes a war goddess as she was in sparta

older versions of Cinderella and co. than grimms

'Friends to lovers' this 'enemies to loves' that where is my 'enemies to more aggressively enemies only kind of ironically'

2 really good mystery thrillers about mother/daughter relationships that I really enjoyed. Happy Mother’s Day :>

For those of you who have read it, how do you feel about The Return by Rachel Harrison? I really enjoyed it, but it seems that from some reviewers they found the banter between the characters quite boring. I guess I just really like good dialogue 🤷🏻