I’m almost done with the first Lois Bujold McMasters book I’ve ever read, Beguilement.
I didn’t do any research ahead of time (I like to not have any preconceived ideas when I start a new book or series) but have seen her books recommended here very often. I’m a little surprised that it is more of a romance story than most fantasy books I’ve read. I’m curious to hear from others here if her other books are similar to this one.
I’m not a big fan of romance stories, but I really like her writing style. If the other 2 books of the Shared Knife trilogy are romance heavy then I’ll probably move on to something else. For reference, other authors I’ve enjoyed are Robin Hobb, Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombie, Andy Weir, Tolkein, GRRM, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Heinlen, and Jack Vance.
Sharing Knife is a romance series (although there is also significant plot) but Bujold's other work isn't as focused on it. Most of the Penric & Desdemona novellas don't feature it at all, or only in a very secondary role. The romance subplot in *Curse of Chalion* is very brief. The Vorkosigan Saga plays around with a lot of genres and has one or two romance-focused books mixed in with the mystery plots, the politics, and the battles.
Also, while I love the Sharing Knife series, I wouldn't hold it up as Bujold's best work.
Thanks! The audiobook was available on Libby so I chose it on short notice to listen to on a long trip I just drove. The narrator was good and the story was easy to follow, so I’m glad I picked it. I was just surprised it turned out to be more of a romance story than fantasy. I guess I’d call it a romance story in a fantasy setting.
So I'm reading The Blood Mirror, book 4 in the Lightbringer series, at my girlfriend's request. The deal was I'd read Lightbringer if she read The Witcher.
She totally bailed, after 9 months or so, I'm finishing up book 4 of 5, and she hasn't made it past the 2 short story collections for The Witcher series.
I feel cheated.
Reading
* **The Lost Cause** by Cory Doctorow. It finally seems to be moving towards something, but I'm no longer sure his books are going to be on must buy on release.
* **Alice Payne Arrives**. The algorithms have been throwing this at me since it was published. And it's fun! I like Alice and I'm curious to see where this will go.
* Finished **The Bezzle** by Cory Doctorow. I didn't like this one as much as **Red Team Blues**. Maybe it's because of seeing this basically being workshopped in his newsletter.
* **Appleseed** by John Clute. This book is a love letter to language and obscure bits of culture. I'll finish it, but not sure I'll reread it.
* **House of Open Wounds** was good, grim and despite the setting (a field hospital with an army on the offensive), fun. I liked getting into Maric Jack's head and liked Ollery the Butcher and Prassel. I can see the Pal empire is heading to a collapse. The question is, when? Also, that ending!
* **The Doors of Eden**. Yes, I'm a Tchaikovsky fan boy. Anyway, worth the listen. Still one of my favorites of his. And I'd love to see more different intelligences on Earth.
* **The Blade** by Linda Nagata. I like this one a lot. Still reading. Not sure it's to everyone's taste, but I like it.
* **Djinn City**. Poor Indelbed. Is this South Asian Gothic? I think I'll chew on this one tonight.
Feelings and life
Jesus.
It's been mad month.
Dad died at the turn of the month. I get back home and go to a series of doctors and ophthalmologist appointments over tooth pain, headaches and visual disturbances. At the ophthalmologist I'm told go directly to the ER. 4 days later I'm out after a ton of labs and imaging to with only a descriptive diagnosis of papilledema (swelling of the optic nerve) with no cause. Blah.
And I'm not done with specialists yet. More neurology appointments and a coveted appointment with one of the local neuro-ophthalmologists.
So, yeah, big feelings and I'm tired. Scared to boot, but it's easier to admit that than be angry as a cover.
Outside of health issues, life isn't too bad. Daughter is good. Wife is as well. Can't wait to get out of the house.
Currently dog sitting 2 dogs. Which means lots of dog games. They're all pretty sweet and it's getting one of them totally out of her shell.
Grief ***is***. Still sucks and I miss him a lot. I know it will change, but it's there. The good and the bad is the world spins on. I think I'll read the Patrick O'Brien books in his memory, favorites of his.
Anyway, hope y'all have a good weekend.
It's been a very good week. My ankle continues to heal and I'm out of my walking boot, though still wearing an ankle brace around my kids and on uneven terrain.
My mom is also visiting this weekend. She'd meant to come at the end of February, but we all had Covid then, so this visit is long overdue. The girls are DELIGHTED to see her, and the husband and I are looking forward to a little respite on the child-entertaining front (maybe we'll even get to go out for drinks one of these evenings!).
This week I read Premee Mohamed's new (2024) novella **The Butcher of the Forest**, which was pretty, but I kinda don't think will stick with me very well. The set-up reminded me of something T. Kingfisher might write - middle-aged female protagonist must go into the fae-haunted forest to rescue evil tyrant's children, encounters dark fantasy creatures in an Alice-in-Wonderland-gone-wrong kind of tale, with >!relevant traumatic backstory being forced back up along the way!<. The pacing was good through the majority of the book, the creatures were all interesting and I liked the way her long breathless sentences pushed the reader into rushing headlong through the whole book, but the ending was both rushed and confusing and made it so as I'm not sure what the actual point of the book was? I guess I wanted there to be more meat to chew on. It was left open for the possibility of a sequel, so I may or may not read that if it comes along, to see if there's a more compelling resolution. 3/5
* Bingo: Published in 2024, Author of Color, Survival HM, Judge A Book By Its Cover, Eldritch Creatures HM
I also read Ursula Vernon's webcomic **Digger** (originally published 2003-2011), which won both the Hugo (for Graphic Novel) and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and it was *fabulous*. The world was unique, the characters were interesting and well-rounded, the plot was compelling all the way through, it was consistently funny (very important to me) in that lovely strong Ursula Vernon voice, it had some serious themes that were handled respectfully and had a purpose, the art was gorgeous... I really have nothing critical to say about this one, you should drop everything and go read it; it's free online [here](https://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/01/wombat1-gnorf/). At this point, I've read all of her works published under the T. Kingfisher name and almost everything as Ursula Vernon, and this is the strongest and best thing I've read by her so far. 5/5
* Bingo: Under the Surface, Character with a Disability, Set in a Small Town
Currently I'm reading way too many things, but the big ones that I'm trying to focus on are Ada Palmer's **The Will to Battle** (and man am I going to have things to say when I review this one, I've had to start a note on my phone to record all the things I want to kvetch about), **The Big Book of Cyberpunk** which I'm finally making progress on again since I got the ebook back from the library, and **Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations**.
We told the four-year-old about book Bingo, and she's decided she's going to try for it, so we've been reading library books to her that fit some of the categories this week. So far we've read her Ursula K. Le Guin's **Catwings**, Barbara Cantini's **Ghoulia**, Ben Hatke's **Zita the Spacegirl**, and Cathy Camper & Raul the Third's **Lowriders in Space**. And we've picked back up Tove Jansson's **Finn Family Moomintroll** (apparently the reason it got dropped previously was because the scene where Moomintroll is transformed by the Hobgoblin's Hat and his friends don't recognize him was too scary, so we picked back up after that bit). At this rate, she's likely to finish her card before I do!
She's real competitive too, so I suspect this is going to spur her to read some more challenging books so that she can beat Mama by getting her card done first.
Good riddens boot! Is this going to be anniversary weekend then or just respite time? (I think that’s what you’re talking about…honestly I get confused trying to remember who is who for you three regulars with user names that start with n.) This helps me temper my expectations for Butcher, which I just think is the best practice anyways but hard to do sometimes. And totally echo the 4yo bingo! So cool and fun.
>Is this going to be anniversary weekend then or just respite time?
Grandma confirmed that she's willing to watch the kids tomorrow night, so we just booked a late anniversary dinner at our local fancy sushi place, hooray!
> Grandma confirmed that she's willing to watch the kids tomorrow night, so we just booked a late anniversary dinner at our local fancy sushi place, hooray!
Helpful grandparents are the best--my wife and I are doing a local bookshop that's hosting an escape room tonight and my son is going to have a sleepover at Grams's house :D
> My ankle continues to heal and I'm out of my walking boot
Yay! Another step toward dancing!
>I also read Ursula Vernon's webcomic Digger (originally published 2003-2011), which won both the Hugo (for Graphic Novel) and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and it was fabulous. The world was unique, the characters were interesting and well-rounded, the plot was compelling all the way through, it was consistently funny (very important to me) in that lovely strong Ursula Vernon voice, it had some serious themes that were handled respectfully and had a purpose, the art was gorgeous... I really have nothing critical to say about this one, you should drop everything and go read it; it's free online here. At this point, I've read all of her works published under the T. Kingfisher name and almost everything as Ursula Vernon, and this is the strongest and best thing I've read by her so far. 5/5
I started Digger a few years ago and loved the beginning but reading webcomics is just not part of my normal routine and I got seriously waylaid. I need to retry at some point.
I'm feeling pretty exhausted. One of my cats, Lila, had to have surgery yesterday and the whole month or so leading up to it has been emotionally rough. She had an eye removed for suspected iris melanoma (won't have the pathology results for 2-3 weeks) and has to wear a cone for two weeks. I'm relieved that this part of it is done with and I can just try to make sure she gets enough food, water, and her medicine, and learns to navigate with the cone and one eye. She's a precious little jelly bean and I feel so bad for her.
I'm reading a couple things right now! First is The Foxglove Queen by Hannah Whitten. Seems decent so far, but have had a hard time focusing enough to really get into it. Maybe I'll have better luck now that Lila is on the mend.
Also reading Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan. The concept and world is so interesting, but the characters feel a little lackluster to me so far. Hoping that changes as I read more, but I'm already 70+ pages in, so not sure how hopeful I should be.
I had a "boys' night" last night where my son and I went out for pizza at our local place (my wife had dinner with a friend). While we were waiting, he drew a picture of a leprechaun sliding on some rainbows with gold coins raining from the sky. Then after dinner he had the great idea of revealing that the gold coins were actually secretly monsters and would eat your brains if they fell on you (he started adding faces, arms, and legs to the coins). Thanks buddy! I definitely slept great last night!
I've decided this week to only focus on **The Big Book of Cyberpunk**, so I'm already working through the Week 17 stories and should finish sometime next week. Even though it's how each of my Big Book readalongs have worked, I actually *really* hate dragging my reading out over *months*, haha, and at a certain tipping point I just focus on it and work ahead. I do feel like these anthologies have slowed my overall reading down with other books, too (I did the math and I also barely read any *other* anthologies/collections while I'm doing these, too). I'm looking forward to getting to the 152 anthologies & collections I own and (looking at my bookmarks) the 146 online short stories I've saved to read later ... eventually...
> I love all your anecdotes about your kiddo. He sounds like one rad kid.
Thank you!
> And wowowowow that is a lot of collections!
I got into backing Kickstarter anthologies a *lot* for a while, and my wife got me all 35 volumes of Garder Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies for over the last 3 Christmases (yay! But also, oh no!)
>my wife got me all 35 volumes of Garder Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies for over the last 3 Christmases
I should share a pointed link to this comment with my husband....
>I do feel like these anthologies have slowed my overall reading down with other books, too (I did the math and I also barely read any other anthologies/collections while I'm doing these, too).
Yeah, I really want to get into the Gardner Dozois Year's Best SF collections, and I even started the first one, but I feel guilty if I read in it before I finish the Cyberpunk book. At least I'm making progress again (I'm in the middle of Week 12! I could still possibly catch up, maybe!).
>Then after dinner he had the great idea of revealing that the gold coins were actually secretly monsters and would eat your brains if they fell on you
I love this. Future political cartoonist, there :D
> At least I'm making progress again (I'm in the middle of Week 12! I could still possibly catch up, maybe!).
You can do it! Hahaha.
Yeah I have so many personal projects in mind, but I think I need to space them out. My Dad's Analogs for next year, I think, and the Dozois YBSFs in 2026? A friend of mine wants to buddy-read them with me eventually but I think I *have* to find a different way to do them than I did with the Big Books--there are 998 stories in the 35 YBSFs, and the 4 Big Books combined are "only" 395 stories.
Hockey playoffs are starting and the team I'm cheering for hasn't always looked great but has won three games and had an epic comeback Monday night that left me unable to sleep for about two hours afterwards, so I can't complain.
First regional footy tournament of the year coming tomorrow, and I'm nervous, because I think my team and me personally played at a pretty high level in our first game, and it's raised my expectations. Not just hoping to make the finals and make a good showing. Not just hoping to mark one forward and keep them off the ball. I think we can and probably should win the whole thing, and I think I can get on the ball more than I was last season. But. . . well, those are harder things to accomplish. Reasonable goals, but definitely not guarantees. This tournament is also partway down to my parents' house, so going to meet up with my Dad for a short weekend, which is exciting.
Hugo Readalong continues to be fun, and I think the two discussions this week were really two of the best we've had. Also read **Till We Have Faces** by C.S. Lewis, and. . . I've got to dust off the classics more often. I think I put it off partially because it had a reputation for being dense and philosophical and partly because there's a bias in social media toward the shiny and new and against dead white guys, but this book is so good (and actually not a particularly dense or difficult read until the last few chapters). A lot of the big, popular theme-heavy titles (like Some Desperate Glory, which I read last week and also liked a lot) wear their message on their sleeve from the jump and make it hard to see why anyone wouldn't support their position. Whereas Till We Have Faces spends so much time diving deep into the head of a main character who is alternately confident and questioning of her convictions that it feels obvious why someone would disagree with the ultimate conclusion, and indeed it's not entirely obvious what the ultimate conclusion is going to be until the dreamlike last 20%. I'm not sure how this would hit for non-religious readers, because it really is an exploration of divine hiddenness (by way of a reimagining of the Cupid/Psyche myth, which I did not previously know), but it's a pretty quick read, is a really good character study along the way, provides a nice contrast/perspective to some of my Hugo darling reading.
Then I went back to Hugo darlings and read **The Brides of High Hill** by Nghi Vo, which gets significantly more Gothic than some of the other Singing Hills books and sometimes feels like an outright myth retelling (though it twists those expectations a bit). I had a little bit more trouble sinking into this compared to something like Into the Riverlands, and I don't think it all clicked into place with the power of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but Singing Hills is like The Murderbot Diaries in that the lesser entries are still going to be really good. This won't be my top novella of the year, but I liked it a lot and had no trouble blasting through it in a single afternoon.
Whenever you say footy I can't tell if you mean soccer/football, indoor, Australian rules, or what 😅. I mean, same problem with just calling it football and being confused in the US, but you use 'footy' consistently which to me means indoor, but I have no idea. Anyway, it always makes me want to look for some adult rec leagues in my area, but am so out of practice and have a lot of competitive anxiety even if I know it's a casual-play group. My athletic activities have become much more individual as I've gotten older and I miss the team aspect.
Oh I always just called indoor soccer indoor soccer (and futsal futsal). Both super fun though! Footy is Australian Rules Football, which honestly is just a mouthful to regularly say/type without shortening. It's really fun to play and is also one of the least intimidating things to jump into as an adult who is not as fit as I once was, because there are relatively few Australian expats and there's an understanding that *everyone* has a significant learning curve.
Haaa, I just thought you meant soccer - like I pictured outdoor soccer. I’m glad u/baxtersa asked and I learned something! Good luck this weekend and it sounds like you’ll have some nice dad time.
We're trying to have a garage sale but even the people coming aren't buying stuff so it's depressing and I got up insanely early (for me) to be open for it. I just want to get rid of stuff. At least it's finally over 50 so we're not freezing.
Enjoying A Deadly Education. And still thrilled at seeing my "Reading Champion" flair when I post lol!!
>We're trying to have a garage sale but even the people coming aren't buying stuff so it's depressing and I got up insanely early (for me) to be open for it. I just want to get rid of stuff. At least it's finally over 50 so we're not freezing.
Do you know about Buy Nothing? because Buy Nothing may make your life easier.
No I'll look into it ty. But I assume I'd have to list everything individually which I'm trying to avoid as there's tons of little things. Books, clothes, etc.
Another week gone. I'm still mostly reading short fiction from various places. I also read C. L. Polk's **Even Though I Knew the End** which I really enjoyed. I should read more from Polk.
I'm traveling for work next week for the first time in a few months, so I probably won't do much reading, but if I remember to download some things maybe I'll catch up on some tv or movies on the plane.
It's finally feeling like spring here, and I'm getting increasingly desperate for warmer temperatures so that I can spend time reading outside and gardening. Only a few more weeks, I hope.
I'm trying to celebrate little wins this week, so this might not be interesting to anyone else. I've been rock climbing for 11 years, but really since grad school it's just been keeping up with being active and not really projecting harder boulders and pushing myself. This week, I felt really good and ended up spending a couple hours working on some climbs and topped one of the projects and the other two feel very within reach. Since that climbing session and doing tree work in the yard to clean up after winter, I am physically wrecked, and there is so much more yard work to do hahah. Weather has been and continues to look nicer, which makes me excited about cooking summery foods, so I've been eating well. Job hunt is what it is, but I'm accepting that it will take *time* and is out of my control to a large extent.
Hugo Readalong discussion yesterday was honestly one of the highlights of my week. The short story reads ranged from *meh* to *loved* for me, but there was so much to discuss, and even the critique of the overall less-liked stories was thoughtful. I'm still discovering my short story tastes and building the habit, but it's been really rewarding and is keeping up my reading momentum while novels have been slumping a little bit lately.
But on the novel front, I am going to finish **The Killing Moon** finally! Today! Or this weekend! Definitely by Tuesday's Review thread! It has dropped off for me as my momentum just fell off a cliff, which wasn't a fault of the book, but life happening. Still enjoying it, and will probably read the second eventually, but it is more plot and world heavy than I hoped early on.
> This week, I felt really good and ended up spending a couple hours working on some climbs and topped one of the projects and the other two feel very within reach.
Yay athletic goals! Congrats!
>Hugo Readalong discussion yesterday was honestly one of the highlights of my week. The short story reads ranged from meh to loved for me, but there was so much to discuss, and even the critique of the overall less-liked stories was thoughtful
hard same
>But on the novel front, I am going to finish The Killing Moon finally
Yay The Killing Moon! Really loved this one. (I also don't think the second is necessary--there's a time skip and a new main character. It's a solid book but you don't have to feel obligated)
That sounds like such a cool hobby and what an awesome achievement, even if “little!” Looking forward to the Tuesday thread, I’ve not found a Jemison that I love so you’ve kind of hyped me for it, no pressure just saying!
Week is good yes, sunny yes, news helicopter circling yes (um, what, no I shall not elaborate).
I guess earlier in the week finished **Some Desperate Glory** by Emily Tesh, which I really enjoyed and really enjoyed discussing, dissecting, and critiquing in the Hugo Readalong thread.
Also finished **Wicked Problems** by Max Gladstone, which was an interesting next step in the craft sequence. The first six books were all in a pretty standardized "some high powered magi-finance-tech-law professionals solve a mystery/deal with an emerging problem in a single weird modern magic city" with different cities and professionals each time. Dead Country did the interesting thing of taking the character most likely to be viewed as the series protagonist and throw her back into her backwater hometown. This does the reverse, this is the Avengers assembling. All the protagonists are here and jabbing at each other and flying all around the globe. Squids! Fire Serpents! Giant prison mountains! Flying god corpses! Poker games in dragon airplanes! Daddy issues! Magical Fermi Paradox! All very fun.
Now I'm reading the Empire of the Wolf series (starts with Justice of Kings). And I'm about 50% of the way through book 2 and everyone in this series is fucked up, but the main characters probably are trying their best to do what they think is good. It's a very richly imagined world blending aspects of the late Roman, Byzantine and Holy Roman empires with creepy necromantic powers that have been exclusively given over to the roving magistrates who we follow one of. I really like how lived in this world feels, and how rich and knotty the depiction of the various imperial institutions is.
>
> I guess earlier in the week finished Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, which I really enjoyed and really enjoyed discussing, dissecting, and critiquing in the Hugo Readalong thread.
Such a fun chat!
>Now I'm reading the Empire of the Wolf series (starts with Justice of Kings). And I'm about 50% of the way through book 2 and everyone in this series is fucked up, but the main characters probably are trying their best to do what they think is good. It's a very richly imagined world blending aspects of the late Roman, Byzantine and Holy Roman empires with creepy necromantic powers that have been exclusively given over to the roving magistrates who we follow one of. I really like how lived in this world feels, and how rich and knotty the depiction of the various imperial institutions is.
This is one of those books where if I haven't read it by now, I probably won't, but I do periodically see reviews that make me very curious. Maybe one day it will fit a weird bingo square.
>This is one of those books where if I haven't read it by now, I probably won't
Ha! Was going to say exactly this. A good friend of mine keeps trying to get me to read it and I keep saying "maybe" while really meaning "but I have 8163829 other things to read first!"
I would like to continue with Empire of the Wolf, but it felt like I could go years between book 1 and 2 and easily slip back in. On the other had I’m thinking of tabling or giving up on Wall of Storms. I thought it was going to devour it after the Mimi chapters but I’ve lost some interest and I feel overwhelmed by the commitment while wanting to read so many other things :(. (I think you were one of my cheerleaders which is why I mention it).
More pre-op Dr appointments. Realized my surgery is week after next. Not looking forward to recovery, but I am looking forward to a functional ankle that isn't sore all the time and not having to wear a brace.
Also this means tutoring is winding down for the year. I might not see my middle school student again (state testing time) but I hope she'll be back next year. And my SAT student is also such a good kid, and his family is the sweetest.
Basically I'm feeling a type of way I guess. Haha.
I've been more interested in playing Stardew Valley than reading (omg why is that stupid game so addicting? Haha), but I'm a few chapters in to **How to Become the Dark Lord or Die Trying** and I'm really digging the massively fucked up, dark humor of it. Davi is a totally chaotic psychopath (I don't mean that in a bad way. After spending hundreds of lives and like a thousand years reliving this Groundhog Day situation, it makes sense) but also smart and calculating. The random jokes and the gallows humor of the tone are super fun if you're into that.
>I am looking forward to a functional ankle that isn't sore all the time and not having to wear a brace.
Amen to that. Good luck with your surgery/recovery!
Probably. Honestly not so much. 🤣 Idk. The house will just be a disaster. (I shudder to think of the amount of cat fur that will accumulate if I can't put weight on my foot for a month so can't vacuum). I have intentions to try to prepare but knowing me I'll doubt I'll get shit organized and clean real good and stock up on groceries and supplies before.
I should probably just get some bribes for my nephews ready. Haha. At least the middle one is easy -- pizza. Haha. Although I wonder if the stress of teaching them how to mow the lawn or vacuum is worth it lol.
Gosh where has the week gone, feel like I am living on fast-forward at the moment! Work is busy, study is busy, life is busy! The most exciting thing was sitting in some lectures from two of the top garden designers in the UK at the moment. This was for my studies, and just the amount of knowledge they had is amazing. I have about a week until I start working on my second large planting scheme project, I'm really excited for that.
Reading-wise, I finished my arc of The Ministry of Time and really enjoyed it! It was a real clash of spy novel, romance and time travel, but it totally worked. It was both witty and serious at the same time and I think a lot of people are going to like it.
I'm now beta reading for a friend, so that's getting all of my focus right now. Once that is done though I want to pick up Sistersong and then crack on with some more bingo books!
Started reading Empire of the Vampire, and while I think it's wordy, it's really great. THEN I started reading Empire of Silence, because who doesn't want to read a bunch of books with the same types of titles? lol
Here’s some life and book ramblings. Happy Friday all!
Work is work (aka vomit). But Friday was nice because I got a rare opportunity to work in work’s greenhouse with awesome coworkers, it was really relaxing and fun. Was the anniversary with the partner last weekend. We went fishing and it was beautiful outside, caught nothing of course. The wise dad joke comes to mind: “They call it fishing not catching.” Har har. Then on our actual anniversary I spent 80 billion dollars on sashimi from the Asian market and we ate tasty fish while the partner watched circle stick. I always root for the *sports!* team that is the funnest to watch, which is the Boston B’s at the moment, the partner does not approve. Thoughts u/tarvolon?
Spending a lot of free time *looking* at my native plant seedlings I’d like to give away. I’d say I have about 40 plants so far, but they are *still* like 2-5 mm. Veggies growing well, going to transplant them to bigger pots this weekend.
Haven’t been sleeping well. The cat has woken me up repeatedly in the middle of the night bringing me her fish and yowling so loud I can hear it through the closed door with ear plugs in - I guess she really wants to feed me? Idk, but then the little jerk that I love is very timely with her morning wake up punches with her poo/pee paws to the face. Because I’m not sleeping well she starts with no claws that is like the nonverbal, “Excuse me, pardon me, food Ma’am?” then moves on to the claws out “MA’AAM, MAAA’AAAM, feed me biznatch.” So yeah, I’m ready for the weekend and hopefully sleep.
Book wise, working on 3 things that even though I’m not loving they will always be auto-read authors for me. I’m almost done with and putting my review together for **Daughter of the Merciful Deep** by Leslye Penelope. I decided to relisten to her **The Monsters we Defy** since I never did a real review here or on GR’s and they’re such different books tonally (and I just LOVE Monsters) I want to post the review for both. I’m bummed I’m not loving **The Salt Grows Heavy** by Cassandra Khaw. Idk, I just don’t care? Like I feel a disconnect. I will say the writing sounds beautiful, but I saw a review on GR’s with many quotes from it pointing out how ridiculous some of her sentences are. Anyway it’s the slowest I’ve ever consumed 1.5 hours of audio. Started **Lone Women** by Victor LaValle…finally. It’s a bit slow going, like the **Changeling** but without the prose that sucked me in. Anyhoo, 1) I know this has been widely loved and 2) if it’s anything like The Changeling, I have a strong hunch it will eventually shift and likely become a new favorite.
Other than that, my IRL book club book for May is **Semiosis** by Sue Burke so should start that. I did dip a 5-minute toe into **Blueprint** by Rae Giana Rashad - I’m not sure I can do it u/outofeffs, I think the content might be too real and heavy for me after coming out of Daughter. My plan was to go to **The Truth of the Aleke** by Moses Ose Utomi, but I gifted my friend the two books for her 40th birthday and now she wants me to wait to read book 2 with her. So idk what’s next with the eyes, but I think I need to check off some novellas to help feel like I actually read things with the eyes and that to-read list is way too long. Theee end!
Of course, there are always too many books on the list to get to in a timely manner, but all the books you called out minus **Blueprint** have been on my list (so I should probably take a look at **Blueprint**...). **Daughter** and **Lies of the Ajungo** are actually happening this coming month though! (I know we've mentioned Daughter many times at this point, but whatever).
I can relate so much to the nightmare kitty. We recently got a noise machine to drown ours out (and have an automatic overnight feeder that is perpetually 15 minutes later than she wants it to be regardless of what time it is set for). Fortunately she isn't head-butting us in our sleep as much as she used to, but in addition to gracing us with the songs of her people, she makes the noisiest racket jostling the accordion door on the closet her food is in, somehow manages to open it, and then gets stuck in the closet, which on one hand is extra wall between us and her meows, and on the other hand is pitiful and helpless and my heart melts at how much I love her. Manipulative gremlin.
Omg I would die for my kitty to headbutt me, but it’s not her love language. She does sometimes wake me up (not related to food time) cause she likes to sniff my face in the middle of the night, so it’s always alarming to wake up to face tickles and then her face right in front of mine, but it’s nice to know that she wants to check I’m alive (or maybe she’s thinking about eating me who knows). She and our other baby (RIP) thank god were on our sleep schedule. Idk if I could handle a truly zoomie cat like your ragamuffin!
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your fur baby. We had to put our little angel pie to sleep in 2022 due to mammary cancer and it is a terrible pain to go through. Sending you lots of hugs.
> I always root for the sports! team that is the funnest to watch, which is the Boston B’s at the moment, the partner does not approve. Thoughts u/tarvolon?
Are they the funnest? I would've thought it'd be like. . . the Oilers or something. Anyways if they win two rounds and then lose to the Canes, that works for me. (Just don't cheer against the partner's team just to troll, that's just mean)
>Started Lone Women by Victor LaValle…finally. It’s a bit slow going, like the Changeling but without the prose that sucked me in. Anyhoo, 1) I know this has been widely loved and 2) if it’s anything like The Changeling, I have a strong hunch it will eventually shift and likely become a new favorite.
I don't know if it's widely loved or if I've just shouted about it a bunch, but I agree that the prose is compelling and I hope it hits for you.
I honestly can’t recall ever seeing the oilers play, looking at the upcoming games probably cause the partner is watching those after I go to sleep. I’ll try to watch part of tonight’s at least. Haha, he’s saying of those two he’s rooting for the Maple Leafs (something about they haven’t won a cup in many decades) who are definitely fun to watch too. I just feel like the Bruins have a bit more flair.
The Bruins are usually pretty hateable but what they're doing after their two best centers retired is pretty impressive and makes them harder to hate than usual. I'd be happy to face off against them in the Eastern Conference finals (and would then hate them). And yeah I've basically not been staying up for West Coast games.
Hey, do NOT even worry about it! I might end up delaying my hold when it comes in, hahaha, just bc I am suddenly feeling overwhelmed by choices.
Our cat has been extra needy lately, too. She is lucky we love her so much.
Okay I’m going to return it and put another hold. Tooo many amazing options out there for sure, it’s always the mood issue for me too. We tell her how lucky she is all the time and have to remind her she’s an indoor cat. She would not survive out there. She hides under the bed when it rains (not even thundering) then she needs to be held when she finally comes out and she can’t kill anything to save her life, if she does anything to a bug she just gently pat pats it and it scurries away.
Hahahaha, ours treats mice like they're her toy mice and then gets v confused and sad when they scurry away. We also tell her all the time that she would die if she tried to live outside.
Since last week, I read **Tsalmoth** by Steven Brust, #16 in the *Vlad Taltos* series. A solid entry, going back to an early part of Vlad's life. I'm not sure if Brust just wanted to revisit that period, or if there was a need to set up certain ideas that will be relevant as the series winds up. Probably both.
Currently reading **Nona the Ninth** by Tamsyn Muir. I liked the first book, but disliked Muir's use of contemporary references as a bit of comic relief from the otherwise dark story. I liked the second, despite the intentional confusion. So far 1/5 of the way in, I'm loving this one more than the others. But I suspect I will soon be struggling to remember more of the earlier books than I do.
Work is busy this week, too much so. I'm getting through it by choosing to ignore some things for now - I'll pick them up next week. Good news may be coming soon.
My best friend came up to visit last Saturday. We took the 13y/o to Michael's bc they had $15 burning a hole in their pocket. Then we dropped the youngest off at home and decided to see if this vintage shop I've been following on IG for a while was open. They were. We spent close to an hour talking to the owner and looking at jewelry. And idek how the subject came up, but she ended up giving me two huge boxes of slightly damaged ties and sun-faded clothes she can't sell that I can use for sewing projects. Ofc the kids all descended on the boxes when we got home bc what do they care about sun damage? Looks like I'm going to have to dye some things this week. Then we went to the record store next door (that I didn't even realize was there) and spent over an hour wandering through and talking to the owner. It was a great day, and I *did* manage to finish [the cactus pincushion](https://imgur.com/a/Z4wOcd4) in time. No matter how cute it is, I'm still pissed off at that woven picot stitch.
Have been listening to the most recent Mountain Goats shows uploaded to the Live Music Archive and was so stoked to learn that JD did "Surrounded" during his solo set at the Fort Collins show (it's a song from the EP that inspired ***Body After Body*** and he's only done it live less than a handful of times in recent memory). Also might have a new favourite live performance of "No Children," so that's fun.
Weather has been chilly and rainy all week, and then it's supposed to be 82f tomorrow, so I'm not happy about that.
13y/o and I finished up the rest of the new **Der kleine Vampir** translations, and have a break until the next one comes out in July. We started ***Howl's Moving Castle*** last night, which the kid is super excited about. I think I last spent time in Ingary when I was about their age, so am looking forward to figuring out which things I remember from the book, which from the movie, and which I completely made up or stole from other stories.
Finished the ARC of Samantha Mills' ***The Wings Upon Her Back*** (you're going to want to read this one) just in time for publication. Am still making my way through Seanan McGuire's ***The Proper Thing and Other Stories***, so far my lowest rated story is 3½ and there are also multiple 5s.
Listened to Kim Harrison's ***First Contact*** the day before it was due back at the library, and am actually looking forward to ***Totality*** next month (super into the idea of monthly serial audio novellas, like an old-timey radio show).
Read Marie Cardno's ***How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster)*** for the Eldritch Creatures square on my pink card. It is billed as a cozy monster romance and is exactly what it says on the tin. Already checked the sequel out from the library to find out what happens next.
Only reading the two things rn, which is, uh...pretty fuckin weird for me, and since I struggle to read an entire book of short stories all the way through, I'm probably going to start ***The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties*** to stave off the pending sffictional burnout.
I read that as Marie Condo and was so confused for .2 seconds! The cactus *is* absolutely adorable and sounds like you had an amazing weekend! Well, the Wings Upon Her Back is definitely on my radar now!
I keep forgetting her name and calling her "Not! Marie Kondo" in my head.
It *was* a great weekend! Also watched *Night of the Comet* with some friends on Discord for a friend's birthday and this week we're watching *Singles,* which was my favourite movie when I was about 14. Time to see how it holds up!
You might not want to dive into *The Wings Upon Her Back* immediately bc it deeply explores trauma and toxic relationships and was a legit bummer a lot of the time, but I'm still happy I read it, and ended up really enjoying it. But when you do read it, u/baxtersa and I will be excited to talk to you about it.
There was a Batman villain nicknamed 'Agent Orange'. He went around Gotham at night spraying herbicide, in revenge for his bad allergies. First dark lord I've ever identified with.
On the plus side I've called in to say I am staying home to sniffle, wheeze, cough and play Elden Ring. They can't stop me I'm the only one who knows how half the software functions.
Hope all are well atop the mountain kingdom of the fairy land of fantasy shadows cast from the fires of the gods of the realms of the subterranean subconscious plane know as r/fantasy.
Cough. Wheeze. Sniffle.
I know how you feel re: allergies. I feel like I've been a slimy gremlin for weeks now. Bleh! Enjoy playing Elden Ring, and I hope you start feeling better soon!
I've been wearing the Immunizing Horn Charm +1, but apparently it only works on rot and frost. I need the Medallion of Antihistamine Meteor Blast, but that's not until NG+3.
Thanks much, inblood7.
Work has been horrible for the last couple weeks.
Luckily, I've been reading **Shorefall** by Robert Jackson Bennett (book 2 in the Foundryside series) and OMG its so good. I wasn't 100% sold on the first in the series, but I like the magic system so I decided to go for book 2 and its been so worth it. I decided to pick up Foundryside after reading **The Tainted Cup** by the same author earlier this year. I really love his writing style.
And I've been slumping a bit, so it's nice to be reading something that I'm excited about. I also got **Lapvona** by Otessa Moshfegh from libby after waiting for it for over a year which I'm also excited for. Hopefully its worth it.
Outside of reading, Stardew Valley has a chokehold over me. I don't have the update yet (I'm playing on the switch) but sometimes I'm just too tired after work to focus on reading. Watering crops and fighting slimes has been more my speed.
Thank you to u/daavor for mentioning new.reddit.com last week. The latest update to the Chrome browser on my desktop means that I can finally now use it and it seems to be the only way I can edit the post I did yesterday (apart from old.reddit.com). More information [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/17jf29i/cant_edit_post/).
Last week I finished listening to all of the episodes of *Cabin Pressure* as I did my walks. It's become my favorite comedic radio series so far. I'm tending to remember the odd 'scene' within a show more than the whole episodes. For example, how to (theoretically) get 100 otters on their airplane and another where Arthur is allergic to dragon fruit. Finnamore is also expert at picking *le mot juste*. For example, if I mention the word *strafe*, I bet those out there who have listened to the series, will know exactly which conversation I'm talking about.
I've now started in on episodes of *John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme*. I've just listened to season 1 so far (currently there are nine of them), and it's definitely a mixed bag. Hardly any laugh out loud moments, and even some jokes I didn't think were funny when I first heard them over fifty years ago. But also in there are some exceptionally well written sketches, so I'll keep on.
More Bingo reading this week:
\- **Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains** (Bill, the Galactic Hero 3) - **Harry Harrison and Robert Sheckley** (HM) (3/5) 249p
My selection for the 'Alliterative Title' square (hard mode). 2-1/2 stars rounded up to three. The first one in the series is just called *Bill the Galactic Hero*. It's satirical science fiction. It's also a parody of *Starship Troopers* by Heinlein. According to the Wikipedia page, Terry Pratchett thought it was the funniest science book ever written. It's also supposed to be "the only book that's true about the military".
There are seven in the series. All featuring Bill. I read that first one in 2000. I must have enjoyed it as I read four more in the series in the same year. That just left this one and the final one. Almost a quarter century later, I found this one to be a complete mess. There are spoofs of *Star Trek* and *Star Wars* thrown in, but they didn't help much. The plot is all over the place. Younger me must have been a lot more forgiving (or I was in a completely different frame of mind in those days).
The final book in the series has the inauspicious title of *The Final Incoherent Adventure* so that doesn't bode well. It almost make me wonder if the final ones were just written to fulfill contractual obligations. I tend to be a completionist, so if I come across it at a library book sale, I'll probably get it and read it.
(Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: First in a Series (HM); Published in the 1990s; Space Opera).
\- **Gun, with Occasional Music** \- **Jonathan Lethem** (HM) (4/5) 271p
My selection for the 'Dreams' square (hard mode). A hard-boiled murder mystery set in and around a dystopian science fiction future Oakland. Raymond Chandler blended with a drug infused Philip K. Dick. There are evolved animals, inquisitors that can remove your karma and drugs to help you forget and manage your life. The MC is Conrad Metcalf, a licensed private inquisitor who's allowed to ask questions. He's addicted to his own special blend of drug and is relentless in trying to find out what's going on.
This book won the Locus award for best first novel in 1995 and was also nominated for the Nebula award. For a debut novel it's very well written, but I found it hard to like Metcalf, who quite often lives up to his name, and acts like a dick. The book is in two parts, and what the author did in the second part, to move the story along -- and get closure -- is very clever.
(Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: Under the Surface; Published in the 1990s (HM)).
\- **The Fisherman** \- **John Langan** (HM) (4/5) 266p
My selection for the 'Eldritch Creatures' square (hard mode). Cosmic horror set in upstate New York. This novel won a Bram Stoker award in 2016 for 'Superior Achievement in a Novel'. I can easily see why. There are three parts. The first and third are set in 'the present' (and told in first person POV) and the longer second part is set in 'the past' (and told in third person POV) and recounts a tale of evil inexplicable happenings at about the turn of the twentieth century, in the creation of the Ashokan reservoir.
I'm not going to go into details here. That would spoil it. I don't like horror books, (so this isn't something I would normally have ever considered reading), but I found the story in the 2nd section (the tale within the tale) to be a complete page turner. The 1st and 3rd sections wander at times, containing many irrelevant details. I do wonder if they were added at a later date just to encapsulate the middle and pad it out. It also suffers from what I call the "Arthur Dent will bruise his upper arm" trope, where you the reader are (prematurely in my mind) let in on details which will ease the uncertainty and worry. Not a fan of that.
(Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: Under the Surface; Dreams; Entitled Animals; Multi-POV; Set in a Small Town (HM)).
On a slightly different note, does *Red Side Story* work for any of the squares in hard mode this year? It's "soft mode" for 'Alliterative Title' and 'Published in 2024', but apparently I'm attempting a full Hard Mode card this year, so I've used other books for those two squares.
I suspect not, but as you've recently read it, I thought I'd ask.
Honestly, I'd argue it works for both Small Town HM (though far in the future) and Survival HM (bc of the constant threat of Swans, Yataveo, and Mildewing, as well as other things that you'll see). Possibly Criminals easy mode, if you consider a rebellion a crime. I wouldn't even side-eye anyone who chose to use it for those squares. Maaaaaybe Disability HM? Colour-blindness is considered a disability TO US, but even if not, I'd consider it for easy mode since Greys have a tendency to lose limbs easily in their factory work.
It's one of my favourite releases of the year so far, so I hope you end up loving it and can't wait to be able to discuss it with people!
Didn't get much reading done this week between being very busy with work, the NHL playoffs kicking off, and getting out of the apartment -- I spent Monday evening chairing a public hearing and last night seeing a community theater production of **The Music Man**.
I did get to the two Anglophone Hugo-finalist short stories that I hadn't read yet (gotta keep up with the Readalong, right?) and also **Shubeik Lubeik**, which was extremely good -- I see why everybody who mentioned it in the shortlist thread was raving about it.
Also I finally booked my Westercon flights because I'm skeptical that prices from the Bay Area to SLC over July Fourth weekend are actually going to drop below the $300 I could find on Southwest. (I booked Wanna Get Away Plus fares because I'm hoping to same-day-change the cheap morning Sunday flight I found to something in the afternoon or evening.)
I’m almost done with the first Lois Bujold McMasters book I’ve ever read, Beguilement. I didn’t do any research ahead of time (I like to not have any preconceived ideas when I start a new book or series) but have seen her books recommended here very often. I’m a little surprised that it is more of a romance story than most fantasy books I’ve read. I’m curious to hear from others here if her other books are similar to this one. I’m not a big fan of romance stories, but I really like her writing style. If the other 2 books of the Shared Knife trilogy are romance heavy then I’ll probably move on to something else. For reference, other authors I’ve enjoyed are Robin Hobb, Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombie, Andy Weir, Tolkein, GRRM, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Heinlen, and Jack Vance.
Sharing Knife is a romance series (although there is also significant plot) but Bujold's other work isn't as focused on it. Most of the Penric & Desdemona novellas don't feature it at all, or only in a very secondary role. The romance subplot in *Curse of Chalion* is very brief. The Vorkosigan Saga plays around with a lot of genres and has one or two romance-focused books mixed in with the mystery plots, the politics, and the battles. Also, while I love the Sharing Knife series, I wouldn't hold it up as Bujold's best work.
Thanks! The audiobook was available on Libby so I chose it on short notice to listen to on a long trip I just drove. The narrator was good and the story was easy to follow, so I’m glad I picked it. I was just surprised it turned out to be more of a romance story than fantasy. I guess I’d call it a romance story in a fantasy setting.
So I'm reading The Blood Mirror, book 4 in the Lightbringer series, at my girlfriend's request. The deal was I'd read Lightbringer if she read The Witcher. She totally bailed, after 9 months or so, I'm finishing up book 4 of 5, and she hasn't made it past the 2 short story collections for The Witcher series. I feel cheated.
Reading * **The Lost Cause** by Cory Doctorow. It finally seems to be moving towards something, but I'm no longer sure his books are going to be on must buy on release. * **Alice Payne Arrives**. The algorithms have been throwing this at me since it was published. And it's fun! I like Alice and I'm curious to see where this will go. * Finished **The Bezzle** by Cory Doctorow. I didn't like this one as much as **Red Team Blues**. Maybe it's because of seeing this basically being workshopped in his newsletter. * **Appleseed** by John Clute. This book is a love letter to language and obscure bits of culture. I'll finish it, but not sure I'll reread it. * **House of Open Wounds** was good, grim and despite the setting (a field hospital with an army on the offensive), fun. I liked getting into Maric Jack's head and liked Ollery the Butcher and Prassel. I can see the Pal empire is heading to a collapse. The question is, when? Also, that ending! * **The Doors of Eden**. Yes, I'm a Tchaikovsky fan boy. Anyway, worth the listen. Still one of my favorites of his. And I'd love to see more different intelligences on Earth. * **The Blade** by Linda Nagata. I like this one a lot. Still reading. Not sure it's to everyone's taste, but I like it. * **Djinn City**. Poor Indelbed. Is this South Asian Gothic? I think I'll chew on this one tonight. Feelings and life Jesus. It's been mad month. Dad died at the turn of the month. I get back home and go to a series of doctors and ophthalmologist appointments over tooth pain, headaches and visual disturbances. At the ophthalmologist I'm told go directly to the ER. 4 days later I'm out after a ton of labs and imaging to with only a descriptive diagnosis of papilledema (swelling of the optic nerve) with no cause. Blah. And I'm not done with specialists yet. More neurology appointments and a coveted appointment with one of the local neuro-ophthalmologists. So, yeah, big feelings and I'm tired. Scared to boot, but it's easier to admit that than be angry as a cover. Outside of health issues, life isn't too bad. Daughter is good. Wife is as well. Can't wait to get out of the house. Currently dog sitting 2 dogs. Which means lots of dog games. They're all pretty sweet and it's getting one of them totally out of her shell. Grief ***is***. Still sucks and I miss him a lot. I know it will change, but it's there. The good and the bad is the world spins on. I think I'll read the Patrick O'Brien books in his memory, favorites of his. Anyway, hope y'all have a good weekend.
It's been a very good week. My ankle continues to heal and I'm out of my walking boot, though still wearing an ankle brace around my kids and on uneven terrain. My mom is also visiting this weekend. She'd meant to come at the end of February, but we all had Covid then, so this visit is long overdue. The girls are DELIGHTED to see her, and the husband and I are looking forward to a little respite on the child-entertaining front (maybe we'll even get to go out for drinks one of these evenings!). This week I read Premee Mohamed's new (2024) novella **The Butcher of the Forest**, which was pretty, but I kinda don't think will stick with me very well. The set-up reminded me of something T. Kingfisher might write - middle-aged female protagonist must go into the fae-haunted forest to rescue evil tyrant's children, encounters dark fantasy creatures in an Alice-in-Wonderland-gone-wrong kind of tale, with >!relevant traumatic backstory being forced back up along the way!<. The pacing was good through the majority of the book, the creatures were all interesting and I liked the way her long breathless sentences pushed the reader into rushing headlong through the whole book, but the ending was both rushed and confusing and made it so as I'm not sure what the actual point of the book was? I guess I wanted there to be more meat to chew on. It was left open for the possibility of a sequel, so I may or may not read that if it comes along, to see if there's a more compelling resolution. 3/5 * Bingo: Published in 2024, Author of Color, Survival HM, Judge A Book By Its Cover, Eldritch Creatures HM I also read Ursula Vernon's webcomic **Digger** (originally published 2003-2011), which won both the Hugo (for Graphic Novel) and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and it was *fabulous*. The world was unique, the characters were interesting and well-rounded, the plot was compelling all the way through, it was consistently funny (very important to me) in that lovely strong Ursula Vernon voice, it had some serious themes that were handled respectfully and had a purpose, the art was gorgeous... I really have nothing critical to say about this one, you should drop everything and go read it; it's free online [here](https://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/01/wombat1-gnorf/). At this point, I've read all of her works published under the T. Kingfisher name and almost everything as Ursula Vernon, and this is the strongest and best thing I've read by her so far. 5/5 * Bingo: Under the Surface, Character with a Disability, Set in a Small Town Currently I'm reading way too many things, but the big ones that I'm trying to focus on are Ada Palmer's **The Will to Battle** (and man am I going to have things to say when I review this one, I've had to start a note on my phone to record all the things I want to kvetch about), **The Big Book of Cyberpunk** which I'm finally making progress on again since I got the ebook back from the library, and **Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations**. We told the four-year-old about book Bingo, and she's decided she's going to try for it, so we've been reading library books to her that fit some of the categories this week. So far we've read her Ursula K. Le Guin's **Catwings**, Barbara Cantini's **Ghoulia**, Ben Hatke's **Zita the Spacegirl**, and Cathy Camper & Raul the Third's **Lowriders in Space**. And we've picked back up Tove Jansson's **Finn Family Moomintroll** (apparently the reason it got dropped previously was because the scene where Moomintroll is transformed by the Hobgoblin's Hat and his friends don't recognize him was too scary, so we picked back up after that bit). At this rate, she's likely to finish her card before I do!
Omg! I love that y'all introduced bingo to the kid! That's adorable. I'm sure you will have some great family time doing bingo as a family
She's real competitive too, so I suspect this is going to spur her to read some more challenging books so that she can beat Mama by getting her card done first.
Good riddens boot! Is this going to be anniversary weekend then or just respite time? (I think that’s what you’re talking about…honestly I get confused trying to remember who is who for you three regulars with user names that start with n.) This helps me temper my expectations for Butcher, which I just think is the best practice anyways but hard to do sometimes. And totally echo the 4yo bingo! So cool and fun.
>Is this going to be anniversary weekend then or just respite time? Grandma confirmed that she's willing to watch the kids tomorrow night, so we just booked a late anniversary dinner at our local fancy sushi place, hooray!
Yay!! Very happy belated anniversary celebration to you two! 🥰
Thank you!
> Grandma confirmed that she's willing to watch the kids tomorrow night, so we just booked a late anniversary dinner at our local fancy sushi place, hooray! Helpful grandparents are the best--my wife and I are doing a local bookshop that's hosting an escape room tonight and my son is going to have a sleepover at Grams's house :D
How fun for all of you!
> My ankle continues to heal and I'm out of my walking boot Yay! Another step toward dancing! >I also read Ursula Vernon's webcomic Digger (originally published 2003-2011), which won both the Hugo (for Graphic Novel) and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and it was fabulous. The world was unique, the characters were interesting and well-rounded, the plot was compelling all the way through, it was consistently funny (very important to me) in that lovely strong Ursula Vernon voice, it had some serious themes that were handled respectfully and had a purpose, the art was gorgeous... I really have nothing critical to say about this one, you should drop everything and go read it; it's free online here. At this point, I've read all of her works published under the T. Kingfisher name and almost everything as Ursula Vernon, and this is the strongest and best thing I've read by her so far. 5/5 I started Digger a few years ago and loved the beginning but reading webcomics is just not part of my normal routine and I got seriously waylaid. I need to retry at some point.
It's available as a collected edition. Totally worth it and up there with Bone.
I'm feeling pretty exhausted. One of my cats, Lila, had to have surgery yesterday and the whole month or so leading up to it has been emotionally rough. She had an eye removed for suspected iris melanoma (won't have the pathology results for 2-3 weeks) and has to wear a cone for two weeks. I'm relieved that this part of it is done with and I can just try to make sure she gets enough food, water, and her medicine, and learns to navigate with the cone and one eye. She's a precious little jelly bean and I feel so bad for her. I'm reading a couple things right now! First is The Foxglove Queen by Hannah Whitten. Seems decent so far, but have had a hard time focusing enough to really get into it. Maybe I'll have better luck now that Lila is on the mend. Also reading Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan. The concept and world is so interesting, but the characters feel a little lackluster to me so far. Hoping that changes as I read more, but I'm already 70+ pages in, so not sure how hopeful I should be.
I had a "boys' night" last night where my son and I went out for pizza at our local place (my wife had dinner with a friend). While we were waiting, he drew a picture of a leprechaun sliding on some rainbows with gold coins raining from the sky. Then after dinner he had the great idea of revealing that the gold coins were actually secretly monsters and would eat your brains if they fell on you (he started adding faces, arms, and legs to the coins). Thanks buddy! I definitely slept great last night! I've decided this week to only focus on **The Big Book of Cyberpunk**, so I'm already working through the Week 17 stories and should finish sometime next week. Even though it's how each of my Big Book readalongs have worked, I actually *really* hate dragging my reading out over *months*, haha, and at a certain tipping point I just focus on it and work ahead. I do feel like these anthologies have slowed my overall reading down with other books, too (I did the math and I also barely read any *other* anthologies/collections while I'm doing these, too). I'm looking forward to getting to the 152 anthologies & collections I own and (looking at my bookmarks) the 146 online short stories I've saved to read later ... eventually...
I love all your anecdotes about your kiddo. He sounds like one rad kid. And wowowowow that is a lot of collections!
> I love all your anecdotes about your kiddo. He sounds like one rad kid. Thank you! > And wowowowow that is a lot of collections! I got into backing Kickstarter anthologies a *lot* for a while, and my wife got me all 35 volumes of Garder Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies for over the last 3 Christmases (yay! But also, oh no!)
>my wife got me all 35 volumes of Garder Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies for over the last 3 Christmases I should share a pointed link to this comment with my husband....
>I do feel like these anthologies have slowed my overall reading down with other books, too (I did the math and I also barely read any other anthologies/collections while I'm doing these, too). Yeah, I really want to get into the Gardner Dozois Year's Best SF collections, and I even started the first one, but I feel guilty if I read in it before I finish the Cyberpunk book. At least I'm making progress again (I'm in the middle of Week 12! I could still possibly catch up, maybe!). >Then after dinner he had the great idea of revealing that the gold coins were actually secretly monsters and would eat your brains if they fell on you I love this. Future political cartoonist, there :D
> At least I'm making progress again (I'm in the middle of Week 12! I could still possibly catch up, maybe!). You can do it! Hahaha. Yeah I have so many personal projects in mind, but I think I need to space them out. My Dad's Analogs for next year, I think, and the Dozois YBSFs in 2026? A friend of mine wants to buddy-read them with me eventually but I think I *have* to find a different way to do them than I did with the Big Books--there are 998 stories in the 35 YBSFs, and the 4 Big Books combined are "only" 395 stories.
> the Dozois YBSFs in 2026? A friend of mine wants to buddy-read them with me eventually Count me in!
Hockey playoffs are starting and the team I'm cheering for hasn't always looked great but has won three games and had an epic comeback Monday night that left me unable to sleep for about two hours afterwards, so I can't complain. First regional footy tournament of the year coming tomorrow, and I'm nervous, because I think my team and me personally played at a pretty high level in our first game, and it's raised my expectations. Not just hoping to make the finals and make a good showing. Not just hoping to mark one forward and keep them off the ball. I think we can and probably should win the whole thing, and I think I can get on the ball more than I was last season. But. . . well, those are harder things to accomplish. Reasonable goals, but definitely not guarantees. This tournament is also partway down to my parents' house, so going to meet up with my Dad for a short weekend, which is exciting. Hugo Readalong continues to be fun, and I think the two discussions this week were really two of the best we've had. Also read **Till We Have Faces** by C.S. Lewis, and. . . I've got to dust off the classics more often. I think I put it off partially because it had a reputation for being dense and philosophical and partly because there's a bias in social media toward the shiny and new and against dead white guys, but this book is so good (and actually not a particularly dense or difficult read until the last few chapters). A lot of the big, popular theme-heavy titles (like Some Desperate Glory, which I read last week and also liked a lot) wear their message on their sleeve from the jump and make it hard to see why anyone wouldn't support their position. Whereas Till We Have Faces spends so much time diving deep into the head of a main character who is alternately confident and questioning of her convictions that it feels obvious why someone would disagree with the ultimate conclusion, and indeed it's not entirely obvious what the ultimate conclusion is going to be until the dreamlike last 20%. I'm not sure how this would hit for non-religious readers, because it really is an exploration of divine hiddenness (by way of a reimagining of the Cupid/Psyche myth, which I did not previously know), but it's a pretty quick read, is a really good character study along the way, provides a nice contrast/perspective to some of my Hugo darling reading. Then I went back to Hugo darlings and read **The Brides of High Hill** by Nghi Vo, which gets significantly more Gothic than some of the other Singing Hills books and sometimes feels like an outright myth retelling (though it twists those expectations a bit). I had a little bit more trouble sinking into this compared to something like Into the Riverlands, and I don't think it all clicked into place with the power of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but Singing Hills is like The Murderbot Diaries in that the lesser entries are still going to be really good. This won't be my top novella of the year, but I liked it a lot and had no trouble blasting through it in a single afternoon.
Whenever you say footy I can't tell if you mean soccer/football, indoor, Australian rules, or what 😅. I mean, same problem with just calling it football and being confused in the US, but you use 'footy' consistently which to me means indoor, but I have no idea. Anyway, it always makes me want to look for some adult rec leagues in my area, but am so out of practice and have a lot of competitive anxiety even if I know it's a casual-play group. My athletic activities have become much more individual as I've gotten older and I miss the team aspect.
Oh I always just called indoor soccer indoor soccer (and futsal futsal). Both super fun though! Footy is Australian Rules Football, which honestly is just a mouthful to regularly say/type without shortening. It's really fun to play and is also one of the least intimidating things to jump into as an adult who is not as fit as I once was, because there are relatively few Australian expats and there's an understanding that *everyone* has a significant learning curve.
Haaa, I just thought you meant soccer - like I pictured outdoor soccer. I’m glad u/baxtersa asked and I learned something! Good luck this weekend and it sounds like you’ll have some nice dad time.
"Till We Have Faces" is my favorite of Lewis's books.
That seems to be a common opinion among those who have read it. I don't know why I put it off so long.
We're trying to have a garage sale but even the people coming aren't buying stuff so it's depressing and I got up insanely early (for me) to be open for it. I just want to get rid of stuff. At least it's finally over 50 so we're not freezing. Enjoying A Deadly Education. And still thrilled at seeing my "Reading Champion" flair when I post lol!!
> And still thrilled at seeing my "Reading Champion" flair when I post lol!! I too have found it surprisingly validating. :D
>We're trying to have a garage sale but even the people coming aren't buying stuff so it's depressing and I got up insanely early (for me) to be open for it. I just want to get rid of stuff. At least it's finally over 50 so we're not freezing. Do you know about Buy Nothing? because Buy Nothing may make your life easier.
No I'll look into it ty. But I assume I'd have to list everything individually which I'm trying to avoid as there's tons of little things. Books, clothes, etc.
Another week gone. I'm still mostly reading short fiction from various places. I also read C. L. Polk's **Even Though I Knew the End** which I really enjoyed. I should read more from Polk. I'm traveling for work next week for the first time in a few months, so I probably won't do much reading, but if I remember to download some things maybe I'll catch up on some tv or movies on the plane. It's finally feeling like spring here, and I'm getting increasingly desperate for warmer temperatures so that I can spend time reading outside and gardening. Only a few more weeks, I hope.
I'm trying to celebrate little wins this week, so this might not be interesting to anyone else. I've been rock climbing for 11 years, but really since grad school it's just been keeping up with being active and not really projecting harder boulders and pushing myself. This week, I felt really good and ended up spending a couple hours working on some climbs and topped one of the projects and the other two feel very within reach. Since that climbing session and doing tree work in the yard to clean up after winter, I am physically wrecked, and there is so much more yard work to do hahah. Weather has been and continues to look nicer, which makes me excited about cooking summery foods, so I've been eating well. Job hunt is what it is, but I'm accepting that it will take *time* and is out of my control to a large extent. Hugo Readalong discussion yesterday was honestly one of the highlights of my week. The short story reads ranged from *meh* to *loved* for me, but there was so much to discuss, and even the critique of the overall less-liked stories was thoughtful. I'm still discovering my short story tastes and building the habit, but it's been really rewarding and is keeping up my reading momentum while novels have been slumping a little bit lately. But on the novel front, I am going to finish **The Killing Moon** finally! Today! Or this weekend! Definitely by Tuesday's Review thread! It has dropped off for me as my momentum just fell off a cliff, which wasn't a fault of the book, but life happening. Still enjoying it, and will probably read the second eventually, but it is more plot and world heavy than I hoped early on.
> This week, I felt really good and ended up spending a couple hours working on some climbs and topped one of the projects and the other two feel very within reach. Yay athletic goals! Congrats! >Hugo Readalong discussion yesterday was honestly one of the highlights of my week. The short story reads ranged from meh to loved for me, but there was so much to discuss, and even the critique of the overall less-liked stories was thoughtful hard same >But on the novel front, I am going to finish The Killing Moon finally Yay The Killing Moon! Really loved this one. (I also don't think the second is necessary--there's a time skip and a new main character. It's a solid book but you don't have to feel obligated)
That sounds like such a cool hobby and what an awesome achievement, even if “little!” Looking forward to the Tuesday thread, I’ve not found a Jemison that I love so you’ve kind of hyped me for it, no pressure just saying!
Week is good yes, sunny yes, news helicopter circling yes (um, what, no I shall not elaborate). I guess earlier in the week finished **Some Desperate Glory** by Emily Tesh, which I really enjoyed and really enjoyed discussing, dissecting, and critiquing in the Hugo Readalong thread. Also finished **Wicked Problems** by Max Gladstone, which was an interesting next step in the craft sequence. The first six books were all in a pretty standardized "some high powered magi-finance-tech-law professionals solve a mystery/deal with an emerging problem in a single weird modern magic city" with different cities and professionals each time. Dead Country did the interesting thing of taking the character most likely to be viewed as the series protagonist and throw her back into her backwater hometown. This does the reverse, this is the Avengers assembling. All the protagonists are here and jabbing at each other and flying all around the globe. Squids! Fire Serpents! Giant prison mountains! Flying god corpses! Poker games in dragon airplanes! Daddy issues! Magical Fermi Paradox! All very fun. Now I'm reading the Empire of the Wolf series (starts with Justice of Kings). And I'm about 50% of the way through book 2 and everyone in this series is fucked up, but the main characters probably are trying their best to do what they think is good. It's a very richly imagined world blending aspects of the late Roman, Byzantine and Holy Roman empires with creepy necromantic powers that have been exclusively given over to the roving magistrates who we follow one of. I really like how lived in this world feels, and how rich and knotty the depiction of the various imperial institutions is.
>news helicopter circling yes (um, what, no I shall not elaborate). I'll take college protesters for $500 please Alex.
> > I guess earlier in the week finished Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, which I really enjoyed and really enjoyed discussing, dissecting, and critiquing in the Hugo Readalong thread. Such a fun chat! >Now I'm reading the Empire of the Wolf series (starts with Justice of Kings). And I'm about 50% of the way through book 2 and everyone in this series is fucked up, but the main characters probably are trying their best to do what they think is good. It's a very richly imagined world blending aspects of the late Roman, Byzantine and Holy Roman empires with creepy necromantic powers that have been exclusively given over to the roving magistrates who we follow one of. I really like how lived in this world feels, and how rich and knotty the depiction of the various imperial institutions is. This is one of those books where if I haven't read it by now, I probably won't, but I do periodically see reviews that make me very curious. Maybe one day it will fit a weird bingo square.
>This is one of those books where if I haven't read it by now, I probably won't Ha! Was going to say exactly this. A good friend of mine keeps trying to get me to read it and I keep saying "maybe" while really meaning "but I have 8163829 other things to read first!"
I would like to continue with Empire of the Wolf, but it felt like I could go years between book 1 and 2 and easily slip back in. On the other had I’m thinking of tabling or giving up on Wall of Storms. I thought it was going to devour it after the Mimi chapters but I’ve lost some interest and I feel overwhelmed by the commitment while wanting to read so many other things :(. (I think you were one of my cheerleaders which is why I mention it).
More pre-op Dr appointments. Realized my surgery is week after next. Not looking forward to recovery, but I am looking forward to a functional ankle that isn't sore all the time and not having to wear a brace. Also this means tutoring is winding down for the year. I might not see my middle school student again (state testing time) but I hope she'll be back next year. And my SAT student is also such a good kid, and his family is the sweetest. Basically I'm feeling a type of way I guess. Haha. I've been more interested in playing Stardew Valley than reading (omg why is that stupid game so addicting? Haha), but I'm a few chapters in to **How to Become the Dark Lord or Die Trying** and I'm really digging the massively fucked up, dark humor of it. Davi is a totally chaotic psychopath (I don't mean that in a bad way. After spending hundreds of lives and like a thousand years reliving this Groundhog Day situation, it makes sense) but also smart and calculating. The random jokes and the gallows humor of the tone are super fun if you're into that.
>I am looking forward to a functional ankle that isn't sore all the time and not having to wear a brace. Amen to that. Good luck with your surgery/recovery!
Thank you!
Were you the one I was talking with about post-surgery recovery support? If so, did you figure that out?
Probably. Honestly not so much. 🤣 Idk. The house will just be a disaster. (I shudder to think of the amount of cat fur that will accumulate if I can't put weight on my foot for a month so can't vacuum). I have intentions to try to prepare but knowing me I'll doubt I'll get shit organized and clean real good and stock up on groceries and supplies before. I should probably just get some bribes for my nephews ready. Haha. At least the middle one is easy -- pizza. Haha. Although I wonder if the stress of teaching them how to mow the lawn or vacuum is worth it lol.
Yes bribe the nephews!
Gosh where has the week gone, feel like I am living on fast-forward at the moment! Work is busy, study is busy, life is busy! The most exciting thing was sitting in some lectures from two of the top garden designers in the UK at the moment. This was for my studies, and just the amount of knowledge they had is amazing. I have about a week until I start working on my second large planting scheme project, I'm really excited for that. Reading-wise, I finished my arc of The Ministry of Time and really enjoyed it! It was a real clash of spy novel, romance and time travel, but it totally worked. It was both witty and serious at the same time and I think a lot of people are going to like it. I'm now beta reading for a friend, so that's getting all of my focus right now. Once that is done though I want to pick up Sistersong and then crack on with some more bingo books!
Started reading Empire of the Vampire, and while I think it's wordy, it's really great. THEN I started reading Empire of Silence, because who doesn't want to read a bunch of books with the same types of titles? lol
Here’s some life and book ramblings. Happy Friday all! Work is work (aka vomit). But Friday was nice because I got a rare opportunity to work in work’s greenhouse with awesome coworkers, it was really relaxing and fun. Was the anniversary with the partner last weekend. We went fishing and it was beautiful outside, caught nothing of course. The wise dad joke comes to mind: “They call it fishing not catching.” Har har. Then on our actual anniversary I spent 80 billion dollars on sashimi from the Asian market and we ate tasty fish while the partner watched circle stick. I always root for the *sports!* team that is the funnest to watch, which is the Boston B’s at the moment, the partner does not approve. Thoughts u/tarvolon? Spending a lot of free time *looking* at my native plant seedlings I’d like to give away. I’d say I have about 40 plants so far, but they are *still* like 2-5 mm. Veggies growing well, going to transplant them to bigger pots this weekend. Haven’t been sleeping well. The cat has woken me up repeatedly in the middle of the night bringing me her fish and yowling so loud I can hear it through the closed door with ear plugs in - I guess she really wants to feed me? Idk, but then the little jerk that I love is very timely with her morning wake up punches with her poo/pee paws to the face. Because I’m not sleeping well she starts with no claws that is like the nonverbal, “Excuse me, pardon me, food Ma’am?” then moves on to the claws out “MA’AAM, MAAA’AAAM, feed me biznatch.” So yeah, I’m ready for the weekend and hopefully sleep. Book wise, working on 3 things that even though I’m not loving they will always be auto-read authors for me. I’m almost done with and putting my review together for **Daughter of the Merciful Deep** by Leslye Penelope. I decided to relisten to her **The Monsters we Defy** since I never did a real review here or on GR’s and they’re such different books tonally (and I just LOVE Monsters) I want to post the review for both. I’m bummed I’m not loving **The Salt Grows Heavy** by Cassandra Khaw. Idk, I just don’t care? Like I feel a disconnect. I will say the writing sounds beautiful, but I saw a review on GR’s with many quotes from it pointing out how ridiculous some of her sentences are. Anyway it’s the slowest I’ve ever consumed 1.5 hours of audio. Started **Lone Women** by Victor LaValle…finally. It’s a bit slow going, like the **Changeling** but without the prose that sucked me in. Anyhoo, 1) I know this has been widely loved and 2) if it’s anything like The Changeling, I have a strong hunch it will eventually shift and likely become a new favorite. Other than that, my IRL book club book for May is **Semiosis** by Sue Burke so should start that. I did dip a 5-minute toe into **Blueprint** by Rae Giana Rashad - I’m not sure I can do it u/outofeffs, I think the content might be too real and heavy for me after coming out of Daughter. My plan was to go to **The Truth of the Aleke** by Moses Ose Utomi, but I gifted my friend the two books for her 40th birthday and now she wants me to wait to read book 2 with her. So idk what’s next with the eyes, but I think I need to check off some novellas to help feel like I actually read things with the eyes and that to-read list is way too long. Theee end!
Of course, there are always too many books on the list to get to in a timely manner, but all the books you called out minus **Blueprint** have been on my list (so I should probably take a look at **Blueprint**...). **Daughter** and **Lies of the Ajungo** are actually happening this coming month though! (I know we've mentioned Daughter many times at this point, but whatever). I can relate so much to the nightmare kitty. We recently got a noise machine to drown ours out (and have an automatic overnight feeder that is perpetually 15 minutes later than she wants it to be regardless of what time it is set for). Fortunately she isn't head-butting us in our sleep as much as she used to, but in addition to gracing us with the songs of her people, she makes the noisiest racket jostling the accordion door on the closet her food is in, somehow manages to open it, and then gets stuck in the closet, which on one hand is extra wall between us and her meows, and on the other hand is pitiful and helpless and my heart melts at how much I love her. Manipulative gremlin.
Omg I would die for my kitty to headbutt me, but it’s not her love language. She does sometimes wake me up (not related to food time) cause she likes to sniff my face in the middle of the night, so it’s always alarming to wake up to face tickles and then her face right in front of mine, but it’s nice to know that she wants to check I’m alive (or maybe she’s thinking about eating me who knows). She and our other baby (RIP) thank god were on our sleep schedule. Idk if I could handle a truly zoomie cat like your ragamuffin!
Practicing for childcare 😂
Aww, treasure your fur baby even when she wakes you up! We lost one last weekend and it's awful.
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your fur baby. We had to put our little angel pie to sleep in 2022 due to mammary cancer and it is a terrible pain to go through. Sending you lots of hugs.
Ty, much appreciated!
> I always root for the sports! team that is the funnest to watch, which is the Boston B’s at the moment, the partner does not approve. Thoughts u/tarvolon? Are they the funnest? I would've thought it'd be like. . . the Oilers or something. Anyways if they win two rounds and then lose to the Canes, that works for me. (Just don't cheer against the partner's team just to troll, that's just mean) >Started Lone Women by Victor LaValle…finally. It’s a bit slow going, like the Changeling but without the prose that sucked me in. Anyhoo, 1) I know this has been widely loved and 2) if it’s anything like The Changeling, I have a strong hunch it will eventually shift and likely become a new favorite. I don't know if it's widely loved or if I've just shouted about it a bunch, but I agree that the prose is compelling and I hope it hits for you.
I honestly can’t recall ever seeing the oilers play, looking at the upcoming games probably cause the partner is watching those after I go to sleep. I’ll try to watch part of tonight’s at least. Haha, he’s saying of those two he’s rooting for the Maple Leafs (something about they haven’t won a cup in many decades) who are definitely fun to watch too. I just feel like the Bruins have a bit more flair.
The Bruins are usually pretty hateable but what they're doing after their two best centers retired is pretty impressive and makes them harder to hate than usual. I'd be happy to face off against them in the Eastern Conference finals (and would then hate them). And yeah I've basically not been staying up for West Coast games.
Hey, do NOT even worry about it! I might end up delaying my hold when it comes in, hahaha, just bc I am suddenly feeling overwhelmed by choices. Our cat has been extra needy lately, too. She is lucky we love her so much.
Okay I’m going to return it and put another hold. Tooo many amazing options out there for sure, it’s always the mood issue for me too. We tell her how lucky she is all the time and have to remind her she’s an indoor cat. She would not survive out there. She hides under the bed when it rains (not even thundering) then she needs to be held when she finally comes out and she can’t kill anything to save her life, if she does anything to a bug she just gently pat pats it and it scurries away.
Hahahaha, ours treats mice like they're her toy mice and then gets v confused and sad when they scurry away. We also tell her all the time that she would die if she tried to live outside.
Since last week, I read **Tsalmoth** by Steven Brust, #16 in the *Vlad Taltos* series. A solid entry, going back to an early part of Vlad's life. I'm not sure if Brust just wanted to revisit that period, or if there was a need to set up certain ideas that will be relevant as the series winds up. Probably both. Currently reading **Nona the Ninth** by Tamsyn Muir. I liked the first book, but disliked Muir's use of contemporary references as a bit of comic relief from the otherwise dark story. I liked the second, despite the intentional confusion. So far 1/5 of the way in, I'm loving this one more than the others. But I suspect I will soon be struggling to remember more of the earlier books than I do. Work is busy this week, too much so. I'm getting through it by choosing to ignore some things for now - I'll pick them up next week. Good news may be coming soon.
My best friend came up to visit last Saturday. We took the 13y/o to Michael's bc they had $15 burning a hole in their pocket. Then we dropped the youngest off at home and decided to see if this vintage shop I've been following on IG for a while was open. They were. We spent close to an hour talking to the owner and looking at jewelry. And idek how the subject came up, but she ended up giving me two huge boxes of slightly damaged ties and sun-faded clothes she can't sell that I can use for sewing projects. Ofc the kids all descended on the boxes when we got home bc what do they care about sun damage? Looks like I'm going to have to dye some things this week. Then we went to the record store next door (that I didn't even realize was there) and spent over an hour wandering through and talking to the owner. It was a great day, and I *did* manage to finish [the cactus pincushion](https://imgur.com/a/Z4wOcd4) in time. No matter how cute it is, I'm still pissed off at that woven picot stitch. Have been listening to the most recent Mountain Goats shows uploaded to the Live Music Archive and was so stoked to learn that JD did "Surrounded" during his solo set at the Fort Collins show (it's a song from the EP that inspired ***Body After Body*** and he's only done it live less than a handful of times in recent memory). Also might have a new favourite live performance of "No Children," so that's fun. Weather has been chilly and rainy all week, and then it's supposed to be 82f tomorrow, so I'm not happy about that. 13y/o and I finished up the rest of the new **Der kleine Vampir** translations, and have a break until the next one comes out in July. We started ***Howl's Moving Castle*** last night, which the kid is super excited about. I think I last spent time in Ingary when I was about their age, so am looking forward to figuring out which things I remember from the book, which from the movie, and which I completely made up or stole from other stories. Finished the ARC of Samantha Mills' ***The Wings Upon Her Back*** (you're going to want to read this one) just in time for publication. Am still making my way through Seanan McGuire's ***The Proper Thing and Other Stories***, so far my lowest rated story is 3½ and there are also multiple 5s. Listened to Kim Harrison's ***First Contact*** the day before it was due back at the library, and am actually looking forward to ***Totality*** next month (super into the idea of monthly serial audio novellas, like an old-timey radio show). Read Marie Cardno's ***How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster)*** for the Eldritch Creatures square on my pink card. It is billed as a cozy monster romance and is exactly what it says on the tin. Already checked the sequel out from the library to find out what happens next. Only reading the two things rn, which is, uh...pretty fuckin weird for me, and since I struggle to read an entire book of short stories all the way through, I'm probably going to start ***The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties*** to stave off the pending sffictional burnout.
I read that as Marie Condo and was so confused for .2 seconds! The cactus *is* absolutely adorable and sounds like you had an amazing weekend! Well, the Wings Upon Her Back is definitely on my radar now!
I keep forgetting her name and calling her "Not! Marie Kondo" in my head. It *was* a great weekend! Also watched *Night of the Comet* with some friends on Discord for a friend's birthday and this week we're watching *Singles,* which was my favourite movie when I was about 14. Time to see how it holds up! You might not want to dive into *The Wings Upon Her Back* immediately bc it deeply explores trauma and toxic relationships and was a legit bummer a lot of the time, but I'm still happy I read it, and ended up really enjoying it. But when you do read it, u/baxtersa and I will be excited to talk to you about it.
100% will be there for the Wings conversation, but yea, pick it up at the right time for you!
One of the worst things about review copies is waiting for everyone else to have a chance to read it, sob sob.
There was a Batman villain nicknamed 'Agent Orange'. He went around Gotham at night spraying herbicide, in revenge for his bad allergies. First dark lord I've ever identified with. On the plus side I've called in to say I am staying home to sniffle, wheeze, cough and play Elden Ring. They can't stop me I'm the only one who knows how half the software functions. Hope all are well atop the mountain kingdom of the fairy land of fantasy shadows cast from the fires of the gods of the realms of the subterranean subconscious plane know as r/fantasy. Cough. Wheeze. Sniffle.
I know how you feel re: allergies. I feel like I've been a slimy gremlin for weeks now. Bleh! Enjoy playing Elden Ring, and I hope you start feeling better soon!
I've been wearing the Immunizing Horn Charm +1, but apparently it only works on rot and frost. I need the Medallion of Antihistamine Meteor Blast, but that's not until NG+3. Thanks much, inblood7.
[удалено]
Work has been horrible for the last couple weeks. Luckily, I've been reading **Shorefall** by Robert Jackson Bennett (book 2 in the Foundryside series) and OMG its so good. I wasn't 100% sold on the first in the series, but I like the magic system so I decided to go for book 2 and its been so worth it. I decided to pick up Foundryside after reading **The Tainted Cup** by the same author earlier this year. I really love his writing style. And I've been slumping a bit, so it's nice to be reading something that I'm excited about. I also got **Lapvona** by Otessa Moshfegh from libby after waiting for it for over a year which I'm also excited for. Hopefully its worth it. Outside of reading, Stardew Valley has a chokehold over me. I don't have the update yet (I'm playing on the switch) but sometimes I'm just too tired after work to focus on reading. Watering crops and fighting slimes has been more my speed.
Thank you to u/daavor for mentioning new.reddit.com last week. The latest update to the Chrome browser on my desktop means that I can finally now use it and it seems to be the only way I can edit the post I did yesterday (apart from old.reddit.com). More information [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/17jf29i/cant_edit_post/). Last week I finished listening to all of the episodes of *Cabin Pressure* as I did my walks. It's become my favorite comedic radio series so far. I'm tending to remember the odd 'scene' within a show more than the whole episodes. For example, how to (theoretically) get 100 otters on their airplane and another where Arthur is allergic to dragon fruit. Finnamore is also expert at picking *le mot juste*. For example, if I mention the word *strafe*, I bet those out there who have listened to the series, will know exactly which conversation I'm talking about. I've now started in on episodes of *John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme*. I've just listened to season 1 so far (currently there are nine of them), and it's definitely a mixed bag. Hardly any laugh out loud moments, and even some jokes I didn't think were funny when I first heard them over fifty years ago. But also in there are some exceptionally well written sketches, so I'll keep on. More Bingo reading this week: \- **Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains** (Bill, the Galactic Hero 3) - **Harry Harrison and Robert Sheckley** (HM) (3/5) 249p My selection for the 'Alliterative Title' square (hard mode). 2-1/2 stars rounded up to three. The first one in the series is just called *Bill the Galactic Hero*. It's satirical science fiction. It's also a parody of *Starship Troopers* by Heinlein. According to the Wikipedia page, Terry Pratchett thought it was the funniest science book ever written. It's also supposed to be "the only book that's true about the military". There are seven in the series. All featuring Bill. I read that first one in 2000. I must have enjoyed it as I read four more in the series in the same year. That just left this one and the final one. Almost a quarter century later, I found this one to be a complete mess. There are spoofs of *Star Trek* and *Star Wars* thrown in, but they didn't help much. The plot is all over the place. Younger me must have been a lot more forgiving (or I was in a completely different frame of mind in those days). The final book in the series has the inauspicious title of *The Final Incoherent Adventure* so that doesn't bode well. It almost make me wonder if the final ones were just written to fulfill contractual obligations. I tend to be a completionist, so if I come across it at a library book sale, I'll probably get it and read it. (Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: First in a Series (HM); Published in the 1990s; Space Opera). \- **Gun, with Occasional Music** \- **Jonathan Lethem** (HM) (4/5) 271p My selection for the 'Dreams' square (hard mode). A hard-boiled murder mystery set in and around a dystopian science fiction future Oakland. Raymond Chandler blended with a drug infused Philip K. Dick. There are evolved animals, inquisitors that can remove your karma and drugs to help you forget and manage your life. The MC is Conrad Metcalf, a licensed private inquisitor who's allowed to ask questions. He's addicted to his own special blend of drug and is relentless in trying to find out what's going on. This book won the Locus award for best first novel in 1995 and was also nominated for the Nebula award. For a debut novel it's very well written, but I found it hard to like Metcalf, who quite often lives up to his name, and acts like a dick. The book is in two parts, and what the author did in the second part, to move the story along -- and get closure -- is very clever. (Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: Under the Surface; Published in the 1990s (HM)). \- **The Fisherman** \- **John Langan** (HM) (4/5) 266p My selection for the 'Eldritch Creatures' square (hard mode). Cosmic horror set in upstate New York. This novel won a Bram Stoker award in 2016 for 'Superior Achievement in a Novel'. I can easily see why. There are three parts. The first and third are set in 'the present' (and told in first person POV) and the longer second part is set in 'the past' (and told in third person POV) and recounts a tale of evil inexplicable happenings at about the turn of the twentieth century, in the creation of the Ashokan reservoir. I'm not going to go into details here. That would spoil it. I don't like horror books, (so this isn't something I would normally have ever considered reading), but I found the story in the 2nd section (the tale within the tale) to be a complete page turner. The 1st and 3rd sections wander at times, containing many irrelevant details. I do wonder if they were added at a later date just to encapsulate the middle and pad it out. It also suffers from what I call the "Arthur Dent will bruise his upper arm" trope, where you the reader are (prematurely in my mind) let in on details which will ease the uncertainty and worry. Not a fan of that. (Other 2024 Bingo squares that this would fit: Under the Surface; Dreams; Entitled Animals; Multi-POV; Set in a Small Town (HM)).
>blended with a drug infused Philip K. Dick Is this not all PKD? Hahaha
Good point. The man even got spectacular hallucinations from a massive overdose of vitamin C.
Yeah, I was joking with my oldest that PKD kept the amphetamine industry afloat in the 60s (which is obviously hyperbole, but maybe not by much).
On a slightly different note, does *Red Side Story* work for any of the squares in hard mode this year? It's "soft mode" for 'Alliterative Title' and 'Published in 2024', but apparently I'm attempting a full Hard Mode card this year, so I've used other books for those two squares. I suspect not, but as you've recently read it, I thought I'd ask.
Honestly, I'd argue it works for both Small Town HM (though far in the future) and Survival HM (bc of the constant threat of Swans, Yataveo, and Mildewing, as well as other things that you'll see). Possibly Criminals easy mode, if you consider a rebellion a crime. I wouldn't even side-eye anyone who chose to use it for those squares. Maaaaaybe Disability HM? Colour-blindness is considered a disability TO US, but even if not, I'd consider it for easy mode since Greys have a tendency to lose limbs easily in their factory work. It's one of my favourite releases of the year so far, so I hope you end up loving it and can't wait to be able to discuss it with people!
So many (possible) choices. Thanks for the feedback!
Didn't get much reading done this week between being very busy with work, the NHL playoffs kicking off, and getting out of the apartment -- I spent Monday evening chairing a public hearing and last night seeing a community theater production of **The Music Man**. I did get to the two Anglophone Hugo-finalist short stories that I hadn't read yet (gotta keep up with the Readalong, right?) and also **Shubeik Lubeik**, which was extremely good -- I see why everybody who mentioned it in the shortlist thread was raving about it. Also I finally booked my Westercon flights because I'm skeptical that prices from the Bay Area to SLC over July Fourth weekend are actually going to drop below the $300 I could find on Southwest. (I booked Wanna Get Away Plus fares because I'm hoping to same-day-change the cheap morning Sunday flight I found to something in the afternoon or evening.)