Honest Nonsense

"is this person being annoying to you or are you just feeling annoyed?"

sometimes people do go out of their way to annoy you and that requires a different response! but a lot of the time we attribute maliciousness or ignorance to someone when we are simply feeling annoyed as a response to something that has nothing to do with us. maybe they're just enjoying something in a way we don't personally like, or maybe they're having a bad day, or maybe they have habits or personality quirks that rub us the wrong way-- and they aren't thinking about how it impacts us at all! and in many situations, they shouldn't have to! it's not a person's job to make sure they never do anything that could be perceived as annoying to anyone else.

and learning to tolerate feeling annoyed is crucial. de-escalating your own sensation of annoyance and refusing to treat it as harm/discomfort is an important step in getting along with other people and guarding your perception of your own acceptance and belonging. many people on tumblr express social anxiety-- and i gotta tell you, if you keep legitimizing your own annoyance all the time as a serious problem (instead of a small thing to vent to a friend about/get over/ignore), then you are also going to end up fearing that you are frequently annoying to other people! that which you see CONSTANTLY as a problem in other people you will increasingly worry about in yourself.

I've had this idea stuck in my head all day

you would receive the supply once a month

the brand/type will vary so you could

There are a few ways to answer that question.

You can read Beth Brower's other books. The Q is technically set in the Emma M. Lion world, and if you haven't read it yet, read it immediately. It maintains that meandering living with the characters day-by-day pace, so it takes a while to really get invested in the story, but if you give it a chance, it's very compelling. I'm obsessed with the romance in this one and it makes me overlook a lot of other flaws. The Books of Imirillia series is also worth a read. Book 1 in particular feels like a high fantasy version of Pierce coming to St. Crispian's, and if you want reassurance that Brower can end a series in an emotionally satisfying way, you can find it here.

You can read the books and authors that she's drawing from--Austen, Alcott, Wodehouse, Wilde, L.M. Montgomery, Jean Webster--all of which have different combinations of whimsy, wit, and charm. In this classics category, I also highly recommend reading Amy Levy. Her books written in the actual 1880s--specifically, The Romance of a Shop--prove that the New Women of the time actually aren't that much different from Emma M. Lion. Levy's got a breezy, readable style with such warmth and wit that she'd be a perfect fit for anyone who likes Emma.

When it comes to more modern books, I've seen a lot of people recommend Christina Baehr's Secrets of Ormdale series as a readalike. I can see why--it involves an intelligent upper-crust late Victorian heroine dealing with a cozy fantasy world--but I've read the first book, and it doesn't fill the same Emma M. Lion niche for me. The books that I tend to slot in the same niche tend to be fairy tale retellings or other underrated indie books, so some options there are:

Entwined by Heather Dixon: Warm sisterly relationships, emotional depth involving grief, Wodehouse type characters and a lot of wit and warmth

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder: Indie-published fantasy set in a fantastical Edwardian era. Focuses on friendship between two male characters

What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball and Lady Agatha Speaks Her Mind by Elizabeth Aimee Brown: Very humorous, very cozy indie fairy tale retellings set in Victorian-ish worlds

Kate Stradling's books all have a similar (though more sarcastic) blend of not-too-magical fantasy, humor, and common sense

The Galleries of Stone trilogy by C.J. Milbrandt isn't really a readalike, but it seems just similar enough that I feel like I should mention it. It's a very cozy fantasy series about getting to know a wide cast of likeable characters, and it's an underrated indie series.

The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson is more of a "if you like L.M. Montgomery" readalike, but I feel like I should mention it because of the Montgomery influences in Emma M. Lion

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther is showing up on my reading list, and it seems like a stretch, but I think it might be a surprising fit. It's a collection of fictionalized accounts written during the very early days of WWII, originally published as newspaper columns, so they have that day-by-day life feel of Emma's journals, and Mrs. Miniver has a certain cozy charm. WWII isn't exactly a cozy time, but this also takes place before the war really kicked off, so it's not super-high stakes.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. A series of real-life letters between a witty, bookish writer and the staff of an English bookstore she befriends in the years after WWII. Maybe the most Emma M. Lion read? It's about books, friendship, and recovering from a terrible time, it's epistolary, and Hanff has a great voice.

Yours From the Tower by Sally Nichols is an epistolary novel about the friendship between three girls in Edwardian America. I don't remember a ton, but it would fit in that low-stakes Emma-ish niche.

The Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild are children's books, but they fit in that same genre that Brower is drawing from, and always have lots of vivid characters.

The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace is also for children, and not as humorous, but is very much in that cozy, low-stakes, old-fashioned vibe of Emma.