User Profile

Enum & Valerie

enumeration@kirja.casa

Joined 2 years, 9 months ago

@vivavaleria@eldritch.cafe on the mammooth site. Reading mostly wlw rom-coms, with the occasional exceptions. I try to rotate languages, but it isn't really easy to find queer romance books in other languages than English. Reviews and comments usually in the same language as the book.

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Enum & Valerie's books

Currently Reading (View all 6)

2024 Reading Goal

88% complete! Enum & Valerie has read 44 of 50 books.

Salman Rushdie: Victory City (2023, Random House Publishing Group) 3 stars

A 247-year-old demi-god chronicles the birth and death of Bisnaga, a city she created and …

[commenting on the battle] ‘And my husband?’ Tirumalamba Devi cried. ‘What about the king?’ Pampa Kampana fell silent and put her hands up her face. ‘The king?’ Tirumalamba Devi shouted. ‘Pampa Kampana, what news?’ ‘Alas, the king is old,' Pampa Kampana wailed. ‘He is old and the battle is long. He has been up on that elephant a long time.’ ‘What has happened?’ Tirumalamba Devi cried. ‘Tell me at once!’ ‘Alas for us all, my queen,’ Pampa Kampana wept through sightless eyes. ‘The king... the king... needed to piss.’ ‘To piss? Pampa Kampana, you speak of piss?’

Victory City by  (Page 364)

Pee pee poo poo on the battlefield.

Salman Rushdie: Victory City (2023, Random House Publishing Group) 3 stars

A 247-year-old demi-god chronicles the birth and death of Bisnaga, a city she created and …

‘It is said that any man who enters here will be transformed into a woman at once.’ [...] Then Grandmaster Li said, [...] ‘I will go with you into the forest of Aranyani, come what may.' [...] Haleya Kote thought for a moment. ‘Okay,’ he said at last. ‘Fuck it. I'll stay.’ [with you and enter]

Victory City by  (Page 134 - 135)

insert trans flag

Salman Rushdie: Victory City (2023, Random House Publishing Group) 3 stars

A 247-year-old demi-god chronicles the birth and death of Bisnaga, a city she created and …

[On the second encounter, Nunes and Kampana see into each others eyes and immediately recognize the mutual love. Kampana tries to get soft words and terms of endearment, while Nunes rambles about fireworks and gunpowder] ‘What's a gun?’ Pampa Kampana asked. ‘It's a weapon that will change the world,’ Domingo Nunes said. ‘And I can build it for you if you want.’ ‘They make love differently in Portugal,’ said Pampa Kampana. ‘I see that now.’

Victory City by  (Page 43)

What kind of kink is that?

Salman Rushdie: Victory City (2023, Random House Publishing Group) 3 stars

A 247-year-old demi-god chronicles the birth and death of Bisnaga, a city she created and …

‘Sire,’ he said, ‘among Europeans, the savagery of the French is exceeded only by the cruelty of the Dutch. The English are at present a backward race, but it is my guess, though many of my countrymen would disagree with me, that they may end up being the worst of the whole bunch, and the map of half the world may be coloured pink’

Victory City by  (Page 38)

anyone wants to be offended?

Wendy Heard: The Kill Club (Paperback, 2019, MIRA Books) 5 stars

Wie beim Wichteln...

5 stars

... aber statt anderen Geschenke zu besorgen, erledigst du ihren Mord für sie - und dafür kümmert sich jemand anderes um deinen. Und so gerätst du niemals in Verdacht, weil Motiv und Gelegenheit nie übereinstimmen. Was kann da nur schieflaufen? Jedenfalls war es verdammt schwer, dieses Buch zwischendurch auch mal aus der Hand zu legen um zu schlafen...

Dahlia Adler: Going Bicoastal (Hardcover, 2023, St. Martin's Press) 4 stars

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home …

Multi-track drifting

4 stars

This is a funny concept: The chapters play in two parallel timelines - one where Natalya stays in New York, and one where she goes to Los Angeles for the summer. The subtitle is "There's more than one path to happily ever after", and that's exactly what the book represents. However, both timelines are a little too straightforward, and seen individually, they wouldn't make an interesting story. It really is this multi-timeline-drifting approach that makes it an entertaining book.