Valerie > Recent Status Updates

Add this to the short list of nonfiction books that have made me cry I guess

Anxious attachment girlies group up! I identify a lot with the concept of "solace sex". When my ex-partners and I weren't having sex, thoughts of whether or not I was really desired and loved were the first to crop up. Interesting to think about and something I've tried to be better about talking about my partners about.

IBCK book mentioned! I guess I'm gonna have to re-listen to my book boys tear The Body Keeps the Score apart so I can try to square this author liking it with them doing an episode on it.

Val's Gender Studies home workshop continues.

Can he punch Tem just once? For me?

Personally, my enemies to lovers self would be a bit frightened by how fast Orok moves but he's traumatized so it's okay

I dunno if I can do this one. It's well-written and likely has a lot of profound things to say about womanhood and modernity and American religion but... Holy fuck do I hate the protagonist/narrator. I hate having to live in her head. And the premise of the book just fills me with such gnawing dread. It's probably the most horrific story I've been witness to, bar none.

I know everyone's dying to know how I *personally* relate to the sex book, but sorry! You have to take me out to dinner at least once to unlock that cutscene :3c

This chapter on inhibitors and exciters was really interesting though! It gave me a lot of insight into patterns I've experienced in my life.

Ok, enough sex book for tonight. This book is already dredging up a lot of Feelings :tm: of both the trans and otherwise-valented varietals. AND I AINT EVEN A CIS LADY! I feel very strongly about the language folks use to refer to me and my equipment and don't always know the best way to communicate that without KILLING THE VIBE STONE COLD DEAD (:

FIFTY FOUR??? I feel like we need to start executing men in the town square.

First, elephants in the room. What am I, a transgender woman without the equipment alluded to by this cover, doing reading this book? Well, the nature of transness being what it is, advice and information aimed at either common set of equipment is often woefully inadequate. But, I remain curious. That, and that woman I care very much about from my last review suggested it.

Val's fujoshi arc continues

This is going to be the most horrifying book I have ever read, I'll tell you what.

THAT VIRGIN STOLE HER UMBRELLA >:(

Eventually I'll kick the rest of my assimilationism.

I'm so close to the end of the book but I cannot read another sex scene at work I'm too self conscious 😅

Unpopular opinion, I LOVE rambly prose. I dunno if that's the right word for it but it feels like the vibe here. Very Emily Austin.

It's so messy lmao. It's like Dragon Ball Z for vampires but there's not even much vampy about this one

The Broadbent slog is thoroughly underway. I feel like there's always a part like 2/3 into the second book of these where it would really make sense to stop and then the rest is the final book in the trilogy lmao

I've lost my magic touch. I can't bear to read smut at work... 😔

Brother not now! I needed to get reading done at work since I'm bored as hell! Well. Nothing about it but to continue.

We're now in the slog of every Broadbent part 2.

This essay was tough. It reminded me a lot of my recent breakup. How you go into a relationship as one person when you're in college and find yourself gradually transmuting into another throughout the years. The other person does too. Soon neither of you recognize each other. The magic is gone because the people who cast the spell no longer exist.

Is Mische like,,, gonna suffer any consequences of being dead? Prolly not lmao I should go back to reading for the soapy stories and bad smut.

I have managed to secure a bit of a relative fortune compared to many trans folks. Every day I feel a nagging sense of guilt mixed with a whole lotta sadness that even this amount spread amongst them would not proffer my friends and loved ones to salvation. I just gotta do what I can.

Well we're one Maguffin and two through-cloth sex scenes down. And now we get to fight a lesser god! With the exception of the sleeping potion, we even have a veritable streak of chapters in which neither character gets knocked unconscious! Groundbreaking stuff!

Passing is... complicated. I feel like I do often enough, yet even that admission feels like vulnerability in a way. It could be used as a tactic by the worst people to tell me the worst things I already fear are true deep down.

I struggle to feel comfortable when I know I look clocky. Like I'm a creature worthy of ridicule for not living up to the impossible standard cis women fail at as well.

I'm resisting the urge to devour this book immediately. I can do that with the vampy trash if I really want to. Instead, I'm trying to read one essay at a time.

I related to many aspects of this first essay. I too spent a good deal of my early sexual experience being a "dude into other dudes". But importantly, I spent less time there and was less... prolific than Blossom. Still, her comments about emotion stuck.

Yo she's died more times than the leader of a wwarriorcats clan.