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marycatelli Mar. 11th, 2026 10:48 pm)
marycatelli Mar. 11th, 2026 10:48 pm)Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz
A light discussion of Egypt. Admittedly covering a long period of history and so necessarily cursory in place. Discusses what records we have and what archeological evidence we have found, and various Pharaohs and changes.
A light discussion of Egypt. Admittedly covering a long period of history and so necessarily cursory in place. Discusses what records we have and what archeological evidence we have found, and various Pharaohs and changes.
Recent travel means that I haven't done much beyond keep up with my book club. (But there's a new Una Silberrad on Gutenberg, so maybe you'll hear about that next week.)
Chroniques Du Pays Des Mères, Élisabeth Vonarburg. So much is going on here, sometimes heavy, but with occasional comic relief. The secret ritual! Archaelogical expeditions! Ancient artifacts and books that are recognizable to the reader (and sometimes let us know that the protagonist has no idea what she is doing, Schliemann-style). Our protagonist is starting to learn that men are people too... We are clearly building up to a climax but I'm not exactly sure how it will play out.
Chroniques Du Pays Des Mères, Élisabeth Vonarburg. So much is going on here, sometimes heavy, but with occasional comic relief. The secret ritual! Archaelogical expeditions! Ancient artifacts and books that are recognizable to the reader (and sometimes let us know that the protagonist has no idea what she is doing, Schliemann-style). Our protagonist is starting to learn that men are people too... We are clearly building up to a climax but I'm not exactly sure how it will play out.
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Despite bad sleep last night, I got up and got going this morning. I ran just over 2.3 miles in 30 minutes as a new personal record, and took the stairs up to the gym also. I visited an ear-nose-throat specialist and was told I don't need to panic, and hearing it from a professional makes that a good deal easier. I went to a coffee shop on Madison Avenue that was fancy by Madison Avenue standards, got a vanilla latte and a glass of orange juice that were unfortunately both worth the high price tag, wrote some in my notebook, deliberately overtipped, and rode a bike back through Central Park.
I cooked monster sauce for the first time in a long time - so called because it's doctored up out of spare parts. A can of this, half a can of that. Some of this, more of that. It's always tomato based and it's about the only thing I make entirely on vibes. I ate it a lot in grad school, but haven't for years. The timing seemed right to do it tonight.
I did some editing and managed to get my stuff together enough to send out a query letter. I'm gearing up to wait for the rejection while also reminding myself any submission is a good one to stay in practice for the task.
I've gotten lovely notes and great cards, and all that would make it a good birthday. But all that could have gone aside and it'd still be a wonderful birthday. Because some weeks ago, I preordered an album and it arrived today. An album I'd waited weeks for, and months, and an album I could say I waited years for without knowing it. Because for well over a decade, I'd specify the difference between my favorite band presently making music and my favorite band no longer making music. And now I can't make that distinction quite so easily anymore.
Because after 19 years, Voxtrot released their second album.
19 years ago, I was in college. I was looking out towards the Pacific Ocean, drinking a jack and coke because that's what I'd been able to get the courage to buy for myself. I hadn't written any novels, or any fics of substantial length, either. I'd barely learned how to finish what I'd started.
19 years ago, I'd only seen the world end once.
This isn't an album the band could've made back then. They didn't have the broader maturity or experience on display here. It's still Voxtrot, beautifully so, and it's as rich and tasty and filling as ever. I don't know how I'd have taken it if they'd released it 17 years ago, 15, 10. Nineteen years. I've traveled the world and seen it end and seen it come back. I've said goodbye to people without knowing it was the last time, and welcomed more into my life. I've gone dancing and singing and been kissed a few times. There's things I'd change about the last 19 years, and few of them are about my life and what I've been doing.
It took Voxtrot 19 years to make another finely cut gem of an album that I think is better than their first.
I hope it doesn't take them another 19 years.
I cooked monster sauce for the first time in a long time - so called because it's doctored up out of spare parts. A can of this, half a can of that. Some of this, more of that. It's always tomato based and it's about the only thing I make entirely on vibes. I ate it a lot in grad school, but haven't for years. The timing seemed right to do it tonight.
I did some editing and managed to get my stuff together enough to send out a query letter. I'm gearing up to wait for the rejection while also reminding myself any submission is a good one to stay in practice for the task.
I've gotten lovely notes and great cards, and all that would make it a good birthday. But all that could have gone aside and it'd still be a wonderful birthday. Because some weeks ago, I preordered an album and it arrived today. An album I'd waited weeks for, and months, and an album I could say I waited years for without knowing it. Because for well over a decade, I'd specify the difference between my favorite band presently making music and my favorite band no longer making music. And now I can't make that distinction quite so easily anymore.
Because after 19 years, Voxtrot released their second album.
19 years ago, I was in college. I was looking out towards the Pacific Ocean, drinking a jack and coke because that's what I'd been able to get the courage to buy for myself. I hadn't written any novels, or any fics of substantial length, either. I'd barely learned how to finish what I'd started.
19 years ago, I'd only seen the world end once.
This isn't an album the band could've made back then. They didn't have the broader maturity or experience on display here. It's still Voxtrot, beautifully so, and it's as rich and tasty and filling as ever. I don't know how I'd have taken it if they'd released it 17 years ago, 15, 10. Nineteen years. I've traveled the world and seen it end and seen it come back. I've said goodbye to people without knowing it was the last time, and welcomed more into my life. I've gone dancing and singing and been kissed a few times. There's things I'd change about the last 19 years, and few of them are about my life and what I've been doing.
It took Voxtrot 19 years to make another finely cut gem of an album that I think is better than their first.
I hope it doesn't take them another 19 years.
So I found myself thinking that I should read more poetry. Because my writing is at its best when I'm regularly reading poetry.
The problem is that I don't actually enjoy most poetry. In most cases I can find myself appreciating it from a technical point of view at best, but the vast majority of stuff I pick up leaves me completely cold.
But I should probably read more of it. For, like, skills reasons.
This thought came to me while I was eating some beets. My doctor has informed me that I should eat more beets for health reasons. Like, beets specifically, above all other vegetables. And so, I am dutifully eating more beets in more things, even though I don't actually want to eat them that often.
I feel like there are some parallels here.
The problem is that I don't actually enjoy most poetry. In most cases I can find myself appreciating it from a technical point of view at best, but the vast majority of stuff I pick up leaves me completely cold.
But I should probably read more of it. For, like, skills reasons.
This thought came to me while I was eating some beets. My doctor has informed me that I should eat more beets for health reasons. Like, beets specifically, above all other vegetables. And so, I am dutifully eating more beets in more things, even though I don't actually want to eat them that often.
I feel like there are some parallels here.
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What I've recently finished reading:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which - I might have read years and years ago? Or I might have seen the movie (though I don't remember doing so)? Or maybe I just knew a lot about it by osmosis and because of the way certain things about it became memes, so I thought I had read it, but really never had. I don't know. Anyway, I read it because I wanted something light and silly to counteract recent more difficult reading and even more difficult current events, and it fit the bill.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which I read and enjoyed despite DNFing The Martian due to finding it powerfully boring. (I liked the movie version! I think the story was fine, but the various supporting characters all felt like cardboard cutouts to me.) Here, the initial hook - the POV character waking up with amnesia on what he eventually determines is a spaceship - was very much up my alley, a trope I love! The various supporting characters that appeared in the flashbacks were definitely better than cardboard cutouts, though sometimes they felt a bit stock. However, they ultimately weren't very important, and I really bought into the book with gusto when...
Okay, I read this book basically unspoiled, in that I knew that the main character was on a desperate space mission to save Earth from some sort of extinction event, but that was it. So I'm going to spoiler-cut the rest, just in case someone reading this hasn't read this book, so that you may have the same experience I had.
There are still misunderstandings and near-fatal disasters and scary adventures, enough to make it a compelling, engaging read. I thought the ending was perfect, and I look forward to seeing the movie eventually! In conclusion, ROCKY MY BELOVED ♥♥♥
The Unicorn Hunter by Katherine Arden, which I read as e-ARC from NetGalley. Arden's One True Story (based on the books by her I've read) is that of a woman constrained by her sex and her circumstances who strives for the agency to direct her own life and protect what she cares about. This book is about a slightly-fantasy alternate-universe Anne of Brittany, who chafes against the fate she and her country are headed for: she will be forced to marry the King of France, bringing Brittany for annexation as her dowry.
To avoid this, in desperation she arranges a secret betrothal to France's enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilien. However, in this version of the world, rulers have diviners who can discern events happening at a distance, and send messages back and forth; to keep it secret, she holds the proxy wedding in the enchanted forest of Brocéliande, which diviners can't penetrate at risk of madness. And there she sees a unicorn, and brings a diviner who disappeared in the forest centuries ago out into the "real" world, setting in motion a chain of events which blur the boundaries between her real kingdom of Brittany and the mysterious otherworld of the "kerriganed", the faerie people of Breton folklore.
If you squint you can see elements of both the Winternight Trilogy and The Warm Hands of Ghosts; a forthright woman who doesn't behave as she should according to the strictures of the day, a figure from a shadowy world who may have ulterior motives, the subtle mix of a realistic world and a fantastical one. Anne is a wonderful heroine who deliberately leads her opponents to underestimate her, who pursues her aims and protects her family with great courage. I really enjoyed this book, especially the afterword in which Arden talks a little about the real Anne, and the real Brittany, and the folkloric Brittany that inspired her.
"The Colorado River Does Not Reach 2030" by Len Necefer and Teal Lehto, on Substack. This is a short story in the form of a news article, in the author's words:
What I'm reading now:
In nonfiction, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman. So far it's a little heavily steeped in pop culture references for me, which means references to pop culture I'm only familiar with through osmosis, but it's interesting and persuasive.
In fiction, Blood over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang. So far it feels rather cliche, though I like the worldbuilding. It reminds me very much of the cartoon Arcane.
In audio, I've just started book 2 of the Bobiverse, For We are Many by Dennis E. Taylor. It's fun!
The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which - I might have read years and years ago? Or I might have seen the movie (though I don't remember doing so)? Or maybe I just knew a lot about it by osmosis and because of the way certain things about it became memes, so I thought I had read it, but really never had. I don't know. Anyway, I read it because I wanted something light and silly to counteract recent more difficult reading and even more difficult current events, and it fit the bill.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which I read and enjoyed despite DNFing The Martian due to finding it powerfully boring. (I liked the movie version! I think the story was fine, but the various supporting characters all felt like cardboard cutouts to me.) Here, the initial hook - the POV character waking up with amnesia on what he eventually determines is a spaceship - was very much up my alley, a trope I love! The various supporting characters that appeared in the flashbacks were definitely better than cardboard cutouts, though sometimes they felt a bit stock. However, they ultimately weren't very important, and I really bought into the book with gusto when...
Okay, I read this book basically unspoiled, in that I knew that the main character was on a desperate space mission to save Earth from some sort of extinction event, but that was it. So I'm going to spoiler-cut the rest, just in case someone reading this hasn't read this book, so that you may have the same experience I had.
Spoiler spoiler spoiler!
Okay, if you have been reading my book posts for a while, you know that I am a big fan of stories about human-alien encounters. My last books post included a review of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud, and I mentioned that it reminded me a little of Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward, in the sense that it starts with an environment which is the opposite of anything humans would expect to find life on, and reasons out from physics and chemistry what life might be like in that environment. But really, Tchaikovsky's approach to human-alien encounters is more adversarial and combative, and probably more realistic, than Forward's. Here, there's also an alien whose form and manner is reasoned out from the conditions of the planet where it developed, but its interactions with the human are more Forwardian than Tchaikovskian. Both the alien and the human are mindful that they are there for the same reason - to save their respective civilizations - and they approach their interactions carefully and with much forethought, for the most part.There are still misunderstandings and near-fatal disasters and scary adventures, enough to make it a compelling, engaging read. I thought the ending was perfect, and I look forward to seeing the movie eventually! In conclusion, ROCKY MY BELOVED ♥♥♥
The Unicorn Hunter by Katherine Arden, which I read as e-ARC from NetGalley. Arden's One True Story (based on the books by her I've read) is that of a woman constrained by her sex and her circumstances who strives for the agency to direct her own life and protect what she cares about. This book is about a slightly-fantasy alternate-universe Anne of Brittany, who chafes against the fate she and her country are headed for: she will be forced to marry the King of France, bringing Brittany for annexation as her dowry.
To avoid this, in desperation she arranges a secret betrothal to France's enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilien. However, in this version of the world, rulers have diviners who can discern events happening at a distance, and send messages back and forth; to keep it secret, she holds the proxy wedding in the enchanted forest of Brocéliande, which diviners can't penetrate at risk of madness. And there she sees a unicorn, and brings a diviner who disappeared in the forest centuries ago out into the "real" world, setting in motion a chain of events which blur the boundaries between her real kingdom of Brittany and the mysterious otherworld of the "kerriganed", the faerie people of Breton folklore.
If you squint you can see elements of both the Winternight Trilogy and The Warm Hands of Ghosts; a forthright woman who doesn't behave as she should according to the strictures of the day, a figure from a shadowy world who may have ulterior motives, the subtle mix of a realistic world and a fantastical one. Anne is a wonderful heroine who deliberately leads her opponents to underestimate her, who pursues her aims and protects her family with great courage. I really enjoyed this book, especially the afterword in which Arden talks a little about the real Anne, and the real Brittany, and the folkloric Brittany that inspired her.
"The Colorado River Does Not Reach 2030" by Len Necefer and Teal Lehto, on Substack. This is a short story in the form of a news article, in the author's words:
What follows is a work of near-future fiction. It is not a prediction. It is a scenario built from conditions that are measurable today: Lake Powell is at 26% capacity and falling, snowpack at record lows, seven states deadlocked on water allocation, and a federal agency that has been gutted of the expertise needed to manage the crisis. // Every element in this scenario is drawn from published science, existing legal disputes, or political dynamics already in motion. Some characters are composites, some are real. The timeline is compressed. The chain of events is plausible. The unsettling part is how little I had to invent.It's cli-fi in the model of Kim Stanley Robinson, purported interviews and charts and mocked-up newspaper images and X tweets, the story of the destruction of the west through climate change and human stupidity. It's really good - and (as the author says) plausible and unsettling.
What I'm reading now:
In nonfiction, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman. So far it's a little heavily steeped in pop culture references for me, which means references to pop culture I'm only familiar with through osmosis, but it's interesting and persuasive.
In fiction, Blood over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang. So far it feels rather cliche, though I like the worldbuilding. It reminds me very much of the cartoon Arcane.
In audio, I've just started book 2 of the Bobiverse, For We are Many by Dennis E. Taylor. It's fun!
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(mrissa Mar. 11th, 2026 05:55 pm)
mrissa Mar. 11th, 2026 05:55 pm)(This silly site would not let me fit both of their whole names in the title. It's Jo Walton and Ada Palmer.)
Review copy provided by the publisher. Also I've been friends with both authors for a good long while.
Which makes this a very weird book for me to read, honestly, because I met both Jo and Ada through SFF fandom and conventions, through all writing and talking and thinking about genres, and so a lot of the first third of this book is, for me, "the obvious stuff people talk about all the time." Well, sure. Because Jo and Ada are people, and I am around them talking about this kind of thing all the time (or at least intermittently for more than twenty years in one case and more than fifteen in the other, so it adds up), so naturally their points of view on genre theory are in the general category of "stuff I would logically have been exposed to by now." It's a bit "Hamlet is just a string of famous quotes strung together," as reactions go: kind of the cart before the horse. And it means that there are a few things that are in the category of "oh right, there's the thing I always disagree with Jo about; look, she still has her own idea about it rather than mine, go figure." This is to be expected given the long and winding discussion it's been, but it makes it a bit harder for me to say useful things about what it will look like to most readers.
So the first third of the book is the part that most obviously fits the title--it's the section that has the largest-scale thoughts about the nature of genre qua genre. The second third was the most satisfying to me: it was thoughts on disability and pain. I think a too-casual reader might mistake it for random padding to make this book book-length without requiring Jo and/or Ada (some of the sections are co-written and some are written solo by each author) to write more entirely new material. But no. Absolutely not. The way that Jo and Ada process disability is strongly shaped by each of their perspectives as SFF writers and readers, and the way they process SFF is--sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly--shaped by their lived experiences as disabled people. Some of our personal stories are about the project of science fiction and fantasy. Jo's and Ada's are. And they're useful--powerful--to see on the page like this. This is where knowing people for a quite long time doesn't give me a "yes I have already been here" reaction, because three disabled friends do not talk about disability and personal history and its place in the speculative project in the same way as two of them would write about it for a general audience. It's a view from a very different angle, which is great to have. The last section is more miscellany, still related to the title but more specifics, less sweeping theory. It's labeled craft, and this is true, but in a broad sense--there are pieces about The Princess Bride and optimism and censorship as well as about protagonists and empathy in a structural sense.
I wonder if people who come to this book from reading mostly Ada rather than both but by the numbers more Jo would see how Jo has influenced Ada's prose voice in the joint pieces. For me, the stylistic commonalities with Inventing the Renaissance were really striking, but if you'd come directly from reading that I wonder how much you'd be saying, oh, that's got to be Jo Walton because it's not really what I'm used to from Ada Palmer solo! Co-authorship is an interesting beast, and I feel like there's a difficult balance here that's partially achieved by having pieces by each person solo as well as the two together. I'm not sure I can immediately come up with another thing like it that way.
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Whatever passes for my health these days has tipped over onto the sidewalk, but my afternoon which contained far too much communication with doctors on far too little sleep was measurably improved by the discovery of Avalon Emerson's "Don't Be Seen with Me" (2025). I think of Oppenheimer Analysis as so extremely niche in appeal that it almost never crossed my mind that anyone would cover one of their songs, much less drench it in heart-racing, echo-dragged dream-pop like a night drive high on the endless windshield slide of light. I still prefer the colder, dryer original with its relentlessly weird garbage-can drum programming and glitteringly nervy columns of synths against which the vocals sound even more paranoid and plaintive, but just the fact that someone else went for their own version makes me happy. I suppose electronically unsettled meditations on the Manhattan Project and the Cold War have come back around into fashion.
My mom is currently doing a no-smartphone-challenge with her students, and I decided to do the light version and set myself a goal of 1.5 hours of smartphone time per day (normal phone calls don't count.) I did well the first few days but then failed the last three, and right now I'm realizing the limit means I can't use my phone to listen to streams while doing the dishes. Boo.
Other effects: I read books on my e-book-reader on my commute instead of fics on my phone. And I really wish my radio wasn't broken but it hasn't reached the necessary annoyance level yet to get it fixed.
I'm not behind on my study plan for my next exam yet! (The upcoming exam is mostly VAT so both important and relevant and hard.) We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm in week 3 and that's pretty good especially for my standards. And that's despite me being sick one weekend and having a bad cold the next.
I told myself I'd combine it with finally starting the Hades 2 1.0 playthrough I've been planning for months, and for the first two weeks I actually managed to stick to my "one run per study session" rule but, uh, not anymore. Ahem. Good news, still having a lot of fun playing Hades 2. And thanks to playing over 130 hours in Early Access I'm so much better than when I started my first playthrough.
(I started now because the plan was DD would start the week after and then we can talk about it, but she had a schedule change and still hasn't started so that didn't work out either ^^)
But since I started playing Hades 2 I mostly stopped playing Vampire Survivors - not completely, I have done a few more runs to get some of the very last unlocks/secrets, but mostly. So have the remaining notes for now, directly continuing from last time.
( More Vampire Survivors: more bats, still no vampires. )
I should stop procrastinating and do the dishes.
Other effects: I read books on my e-book-reader on my commute instead of fics on my phone. And I really wish my radio wasn't broken but it hasn't reached the necessary annoyance level yet to get it fixed.
I'm not behind on my study plan for my next exam yet! (The upcoming exam is mostly VAT so both important and relevant and hard.) We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm in week 3 and that's pretty good especially for my standards. And that's despite me being sick one weekend and having a bad cold the next.
I told myself I'd combine it with finally starting the Hades 2 1.0 playthrough I've been planning for months, and for the first two weeks I actually managed to stick to my "one run per study session" rule but, uh, not anymore. Ahem. Good news, still having a lot of fun playing Hades 2. And thanks to playing over 130 hours in Early Access I'm so much better than when I started my first playthrough.
(I started now because the plan was DD would start the week after and then we can talk about it, but she had a schedule change and still hasn't started so that didn't work out either ^^)
But since I started playing Hades 2 I mostly stopped playing Vampire Survivors - not completely, I have done a few more runs to get some of the very last unlocks/secrets, but mostly. So have the remaining notes for now, directly continuing from last time.
( More Vampire Survivors: more bats, still no vampires. )
I should stop procrastinating and do the dishes.
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Did my last pottery for the current cycle yesterday, trimming and handling casseroles and canisters. Fired a bisque overnight that had been loaded for a week, and I'm drying mugs and stews on the hot lid this morning. Now I'm starting to organize for my Wisconsin trip this weekend, washing clothes, printing out checklists, starting to gather necessities. I've got my travel notes ready to assemble--flight, car, hotel info. Booked a cab to the airport, so Denise doesn't have to drive in the dark. Looked up the weather--looks like I'll hit at least some snow, oh joy.
My brain is buzzing, a little; I keep reminding myself I've two days to pull everything together, but my anxiety isn't listening.
My brain is buzzing, a little; I keep reminding myself I've two days to pull everything together, but my anxiety isn't listening.
Sunday's Club Mud Studio Sale came together very well. We went from "will we have enough stuff" to "where will we fit all of this" in the space of about two hours Saturday afternoon. Sale opened 9 am Sunday, and was already crowded when I arrived at 10. The sale has evolved over the years, from a mostly seconds sale to mostly firsts, with some seconds and a smattering of discontinued items and orphans from special orders.
Our previous best year was 2024, over $3900. This year we smashed that record by over $700, largely riding on Shelly's sculptures. She was by far our best seller; I came in a distant second, but still over $400 for the day.
Our previous best year was 2024, over $3900. This year we smashed that record by over $700, largely riding on Shelly's sculptures. She was by far our best seller; I came in a distant second, but still over $400 for the day.
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I was busy enough yesterday that this went out on Bluesky, but not yet here on my own site!
I am teaming up again with Avery Liell-Kok (one of the artists from the pattern deck) to make Lady Trent's Field Journal: A Dragon Coloring Book. Ten images of dragons in the wild, accompanied by excerpts from Lady Trent's scholarly writings -- my way of answering a question I've gotten with surprising frequency, which is "Will you ever publish any of her scientific work?" I have yet to come up with any complete ideas in that regard that would be interesting enough to pass as a short story, but as pairings for her drawings from the field? Sure!
The dragons featured here are a deliberate mix of old favorites you've seen before, dragons which got mentioned but never depicted, and new beasts created entirely for this project. The Kickstarter campaign will offer the writings and images in three formats: a file pack you can print at home or color in digitally, a loose-leaf pack to facilitate sharing around or hanging on the wall, and a paperback book -- that last coming in both a regular and a Scholar's Edition, which will be signed and have an additional quick sketch from Avery. I'm also including add-ons for bookplates and signed paperbacks of the novels in the series!
Right now we're in the pre-launch phase. If you'd like to be notified when it goes live (or you just want to support the project in the eyes of the algorithm gods), just click the "notify me" button here. It won't be long!
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/ww1BN4)
I am teaming up again with Avery Liell-Kok (one of the artists from the pattern deck) to make Lady Trent's Field Journal: A Dragon Coloring Book. Ten images of dragons in the wild, accompanied by excerpts from Lady Trent's scholarly writings -- my way of answering a question I've gotten with surprising frequency, which is "Will you ever publish any of her scientific work?" I have yet to come up with any complete ideas in that regard that would be interesting enough to pass as a short story, but as pairings for her drawings from the field? Sure!
The dragons featured here are a deliberate mix of old favorites you've seen before, dragons which got mentioned but never depicted, and new beasts created entirely for this project. The Kickstarter campaign will offer the writings and images in three formats: a file pack you can print at home or color in digitally, a loose-leaf pack to facilitate sharing around or hanging on the wall, and a paperback book -- that last coming in both a regular and a Scholar's Edition, which will be signed and have an additional quick sketch from Avery. I'm also including add-ons for bookplates and signed paperbacks of the novels in the series!
Right now we're in the pre-launch phase. If you'd like to be notified when it goes live (or you just want to support the project in the eyes of the algorithm gods), just click the "notify me" button here. It won't be long!
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/ww1BN4)
Here we are again! Slowed down a bit this time, for a variety of reasons, and man, my pattern for the year of short books being what I'm in the mood for and enjoying the most certainly seems to be holding true. My poor attention span!
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) by Quenby Olson
Radio Romance by Ariella Monti
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Changeling by Juniper Butterworth
The Heart Is a Universe by Sherry Thomas
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
If Not, Winter by Sappho trans. Anne Carson
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
Okay, I was feeling wordy this time! Anyway, a few standouts here (three from this list made my top ten for the year so far, the Harrow at the very top), and a few more meh ones. We'll hope for my continued decent reading luck to continue! 2026 hasn't been stellar, but it's still been a breath of fresh air after a few rough reading years so far.
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) by Quenby Olson
This one was plenty charming but for some unaccountable reason I struggled to get through it! I love a story about a trod-upon spinster gathering herself and figuring out how to make her life a better one, and this fit the bill, plus there was a dragon! Maybe I was just in the wrong mood for it? I really don't think it's anything Olson did wrong. I'm not sure I'll read the rest of the series, but if you're a fan of Marie Brennan's dragon books these might scratch the same itch.
Radio Romance by Ariella Monti
A very slight novella, lots of time skips, but I really liked it for a. having good lead chemistry, a thing that's bafflingly rare these days and b. showing that the leads were the write people who couldn't ever quite find the right time until the end. There wasn't much to it, but I did like it!
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
I feel like in the hurry-rush of publishing these days, where everyone both self-pub and trad-pub needs to make money so much and stay relevant and in the public eye that they're churning their books out at unsustainable speeds that impact quality, Harrow is that rare writer who gets objectively better with every book. It's not that every book is relevant to my interests (I enjoyed her last one, the Gothic, but I can't say that's really my genre), just that she really seems dedicated to honing her craft. And in this one her craft has been honed AND it's relevant to my interests in that there's a sad bisexual lady knight, a sad storyteller/academic, and time loop/travel fuckery, so I LOVED it. It's not an easy read, but it said a lot of things about the stories people tell and the stories governments tell and also about trauma. Good read for Arthuriana fans who don't want to read another Arthuriana retelling.
A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
A middle grade about an orphan who gets adopted by a trio of sisters who are fake mediums at the height of spiritualism and who grapples with wanting a family, with figuring out what ethics are and how to have them, and with a bunch of other things too. This was really lovely! I've read a bit of Schlitz before and enjoyed it but this felt like a cut above. Good read for your preteen relative who liked Anne of Green Gables but wanted something a little darker and less episodic.
The Changeling by Juniper Butterworth
Chose to style this as it was on the cover but Butterworth seems to be a barely-veiled pseudonym, so it's hard to tell if that's the right call sometimes. But anyway! A small weird interesting poly romance. I like when I find a fantasy romance that's a fantasy romance and not a Romantasy, both the dark and cozy sides of the current trends annoy me but sometimes you run across something that is just being itself! I can't say it was super central to my usual vibe, but again, it was itself, I'm not going to turn my nose up at it at ALL. Could have used a bit more meat on it, though. I feel like there's a readalike for the vibe of the fey here but it's not coming to my brain, but it isn't Sarah J. Maas or even Holly Black, if that is important to you in either direction.
The Heart Is a Universe by Sherry Thomas
When I saw that the author of one of my favorite historicals that I've read in the last five years (Ravishing the Heiress) wrote a sci fi romance novella I had to read it, and I've been saving it for ages and decided the time was right. And man, this was a mixed bag? (Which I've discovered is largely true of Thomas for me in general, actually, despite my glowing love of RtH--except for its B-plot about the hero's sister, so even that's a mixed bag I suppose.) On one hand, there was fun worldbuilding, the relationship was developed in interesting ways, and there was ... more of an attempt at dealing in an interesting and kind way with disability than either romance or sci fi is often willing to do, there was some Miraculous Cure shit going on at the end that I didn't love, but like. Romance. The disability was killing the hero. So. Anyway, the disappointment here is that the ending was abrupt, completely changed the scope of the story and then abandoned it largely unresolved, and made it more into a fantasy vibe than a sci fi one--like, sci fi is fantasy, right, just with different trappings? But the trappings got a bit too fantasy for me there. So this was frustrating in that it was nearly exactly what I wanted, but couldn't quite get there.
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
Got behind on these, hoping to do the next one in the series soon, but man, Vo could write one of these yearly for the foreseeable future and I would eat them up with a spoon. This one wasn't even one of my favorites in the series, it's just that the scale for this series is so good that "less favorite" still means "a gorgeous jewel of a novella, with MAMMOTHS." I think the less favorite was just because until pretty close to the end the storytelling wasn't as much a part of things, at least overtly, as it is in some other books. I loved getting some depth on the neixin, though, that was really cool (and wrenching, in places).
If Not, Winter by Sappho trans. Anne Carson
I read this in college as part of a sequence of courses that surveyed influential Western literature, and this was one of the earliest ones in the sequence and, I think, the one I loved most. I for some reason got rid of my copy at some point, but I stumbled into it at Goodwill and it felt like fate, so I settled in for a reread! Even if Carson takes some liberties, it's just such a beautiful translation (there was one about apples that caught my attention this time that I didn't remember from the college read), and absolutely worth enjoying. I read Carson's Oresteia a few years back, I should read more of her work. There's a real clarity in her prose.
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
I'd been saving this one for a while. A sapphic from Guillory? Be still my heart! Anyway, it really was a joy, full of queer events, growing pains in friendships, indulgent outfit descriptions, and, as of course the title implies, flirtation. One character, Avery, is fresh off a breakup with a man and exploring her queerness (bisexual characters!!!) and her need for control, and the other, Taylor, has dated pretty much every queer woman in the region and is discovering that it kind of hurts that some of her friends don't think she's capable of anything deep, and they both go on lovely satisfying journeys, especially Taylor.
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
To start, it feels deeply weird referring to this as one book. It's Smith's preferred way these days, so I bow to that, but I was introduced to it as a duology, my copies are a duology, and they really do feel like separate books to me, with separate arcs and stakes and all that. But I shan't gainsay the author! Anyway, I was thinking about that a lot because I think I read the first book/half of the book twice as a teenager, but I read the second ... conservatively twenty? I haven't read either in several years, definitely longer than I've been making these posts and probably longer than that, but there are still large swathes of Court Duel, the second half, that I have memorized, and it's been formative of both my reading and my writing to an extent that I think you can only understand if you read the book and then a bunch of my original fiction, especially my older work. The epistolary romance! The indulgent outfit descriptions (two books in a row apparently)! FAN LANGUAGE. Anyway, this actually does stand the test of time quite well, I think! Lots of fun politics, some world-stage politics happening in ways I didn't pay attention to before (but which makes sense because Smith spends a lot of time on the epic history and politics of her Sartorias-deles world), some interesting bits of worldbuilding, overall a delightful romp and an excellent way to spend the last couple of days.
Okay, I was feeling wordy this time! Anyway, a few standouts here (three from this list made my top ten for the year so far, the Harrow at the very top), and a few more meh ones. We'll hope for my continued decent reading luck to continue! 2026 hasn't been stellar, but it's still been a breath of fresh air after a few rough reading years so far.
What I read
Finished Death in the Palace - was not sure at first about the introduction of the actual Marx Brothers into the cast, but felt this had meta-textual resonance as there was something very Marxiste about the whole making-a-movie shenanigans (especially when it's this dreadful costume epic) + murder mystery going on.
Then went straight on to Cat Sebastian, Star Shipped, which was fine but perhaps didn't quite reach the high bar set by After Hours at Dooryard Books among her recent history/contemporary set works.
Returned to TonyInterrupter, which had perhaps lost some momentum from the hiatus, but nonetheless, I may try more Nicola Barker at some time.
Georgette Heyer, Regency Buck (1935) came up as a Kobo deal, and I realised it had not featured in the Heyer re-read binge a few years ago. Gosh, it shows a certain early style, what? with the massive amount of Mi Research, I Show U It, re prize-fights, phaeton-racing to Brighton, the interiors of the Royal Pavilion, the members of the House of Hanover (how right Mme C- was in advising to keep well away, no?). Also, this cannot be, can it, the first outing of the Apparently Dangerous Alpha Male vs the Civil and Sympathetic Beta Male who turns out to be a conniving sleaze? (not unique to Heyer.)
Also finished the book for review.
On the go
Also picked up as a Kobo deal, Fern Riddell, Victoria's Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen (2025). I have considered the author, as a historian of Victorian sexuality, sound on the vibrator question, if perhaps a bit too much in the 'Victorians were cool sexy beasts really' camp (It's All More Complicated), but I was interested to see where this would go. It's very good on the way things are with the Royal Archives, for which 'gatekeeping' seems too loose a term. But I'm still not entirely persuaded. It's a bit repetitive. Okay, it's quite good on the tensions within the actual Royal family (though can it really be that Kaiser Bill-to-be had Oedipus issues?). But still have a way to go.
Up next
Maybe the latest Literary Review. Otherwise, dunno.
"A nice fried egg, sir."
"And what, pray, do you mean by nice? It may be an amiable egg. It may be a civil, well-meaning egg. But if you think it is fit for human consumption, adjust that impression."
—PG Wodehouse,"Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo"
Tags:
What I Just Finished Reading
Still nothing. I mean, okay, I read The Superia Stratagem for the 616 server book club but I'm not counting that because I have dignity.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( 1776 #5, Doctor Strange #4, Imperial Guardians #1 )
What I'm Reading Next
Don't know. Still trying to figure out how to medicate my migraines. I clearly shouldn't try to write these posts while in the middle of migraine prodrome.
Still nothing. I mean, okay, I read The Superia Stratagem for the 616 server book club but I'm not counting that because I have dignity.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( 1776 #5, Doctor Strange #4, Imperial Guardians #1 )
What I'm Reading Next
Don't know. Still trying to figure out how to medicate my migraines. I clearly shouldn't try to write these posts while in the middle of migraine prodrome.
I keep intending to be better than a once-a-week blogger, but here we are on another Wednesday.
What am I doing with my life? Still much the same. I've added A-Ihsan mosque to the places I patrol, since, as discussed in previous posts, things drag on relentessly and so we are losing more and more volunteers. Very reasonably? As I told the folks at the Food Communists the other day, the only reason I'm still here is because I don't have a life to get back to!
I did intend to tell you all the story of the day I was stalked by a drone as I watched over school children getting off buses.
Image: A distant and blurry shot, but very clearly a drone.
It was maybe last Tuesday? But some time last week, I was at my usual spot waiting for the several buses that stop near my location to do their thing, when I noticed a drone buzzing around. I alerted dispatch and promised to try to get film or a still picture. Friends? I have now learned that it's a good thing that the resistance did not need me to be its archivist. This was the BEST shot I got despite the fact that at one point it hovered directly in front of me for several long seconds. Did I hit record? I thought I did! Instead, I was just pointing my phone at it. I now know that while I do have the presence of mind and wherewithal to have my camera pointed mostly in the right direction, I am, in fact, much more likely to take crystal clear video of the sidewalk than the clear and present threat. Sheesh.
In fact, I initally thought that all I got a picture of was something that looked like I took a picture of the sun. Luckily, I found this picture with a tiny dot on it that, once enlarged (like the picture above), you can clearly make out the shape of the drone.
Do I think it was ICE or the cops?
I can't say for sure.
There are hobbiests out there with a poor sense of where to fly these things, but the reason I stand at the corner I do is because there is a very large concentration of Somali families that live in the nearby apartments.Also? That moment it chose to drop low and hover directly above and slightly in front of me was weird. I can't explain it, but it definitely exuded threat. Maybe it was a hobbiest trying to make sure I got a good look and thus would know that it was NOT a threat, but it "stared" at me until I waved. Then it finally flew off, like it wanted me to know that we saw each other.
Our various rapid response groups try to keep track of drones, because people think they see a lot of drones--though usually at night. I am pretty confident that I can spot the difference between an airplane, a helicopter, and a drone even at night, but, when it's just lights in the dark, I wouldn't swear to it. This was broad daylight, and there is no mistaking this for anything else. My picture isn't great, but it's a picture of a drone. Who it belongs to? Uncertain. But it was in a vulnerable neighborhood and spent a lot of time circling me and the school bus drop-off area.
Otherwise, despite a few lulls and the Food Communists trying to figure out a sustainable schedule that doesn't exhaust its volunteers or its funds, I still spend an hour or two packing groceries pretty much every day that they're open and in operation. Food is still flying out the door. Food insecurity is real? But, also there are plenty of people who are still trying to recover from Metro Surge, wages lost because of it, etc.
I did manage to read a couple of things, though! Shawn needed me to go to the library pick up some Minnesota-centric cookbooks to be donated to the history center and, since I was there, I decided to peruse the manga section. I brought a bunch home. But, in the last couple of days I read A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici (Volume 1) and My Oh My, Atami-kun by Tanuma Asa. Both are lightly humorous, the first largely being a send-up of all the yaoi tropes. I actually like My Oh My, Atami-kun better because... well, largely because I'm a tough sell on comedy, generally, and part of me felt like A Man Who Defies the World of BL was asking me to lean into the supposed hilarity of trying to avoid catching Teh Gay and so it ended up feeling a touch homophobic. This sense was made worse by watching the first episode of the live-action TV show by the same name. My Oh My, Atami-kun also plays into the stereotypes a bit, by having Atami being the kind of gay who is constantly falling in love at first sight. But, there's a lot more found family stuff that's taken very seriously and some really great straight + gay friendships that are continuing throughout (I read the first volume that I got from the library and then immediately tracked down everything that's on the pirate sites. Whcih, shame on me, but I liked it that much.)
My Thirsty Sword Lesbians game ended up being canceleld for the second time in as many months, but people were sick and some were travelling and had thought they could videocall in, but couldn't after all. Alas!
So, that's me. I'm just keepin' on keepin' on in the resistance and life. How's by you?
What am I doing with my life? Still much the same. I've added A-Ihsan mosque to the places I patrol, since, as discussed in previous posts, things drag on relentessly and so we are losing more and more volunteers. Very reasonably? As I told the folks at the Food Communists the other day, the only reason I'm still here is because I don't have a life to get back to!
I did intend to tell you all the story of the day I was stalked by a drone as I watched over school children getting off buses.
Image: A distant and blurry shot, but very clearly a drone.
It was maybe last Tuesday? But some time last week, I was at my usual spot waiting for the several buses that stop near my location to do their thing, when I noticed a drone buzzing around. I alerted dispatch and promised to try to get film or a still picture. Friends? I have now learned that it's a good thing that the resistance did not need me to be its archivist. This was the BEST shot I got despite the fact that at one point it hovered directly in front of me for several long seconds. Did I hit record? I thought I did! Instead, I was just pointing my phone at it. I now know that while I do have the presence of mind and wherewithal to have my camera pointed mostly in the right direction, I am, in fact, much more likely to take crystal clear video of the sidewalk than the clear and present threat. Sheesh.
In fact, I initally thought that all I got a picture of was something that looked like I took a picture of the sun. Luckily, I found this picture with a tiny dot on it that, once enlarged (like the picture above), you can clearly make out the shape of the drone.
Do I think it was ICE or the cops?
I can't say for sure.
There are hobbiests out there with a poor sense of where to fly these things, but the reason I stand at the corner I do is because there is a very large concentration of Somali families that live in the nearby apartments.Also? That moment it chose to drop low and hover directly above and slightly in front of me was weird. I can't explain it, but it definitely exuded threat. Maybe it was a hobbiest trying to make sure I got a good look and thus would know that it was NOT a threat, but it "stared" at me until I waved. Then it finally flew off, like it wanted me to know that we saw each other.
Our various rapid response groups try to keep track of drones, because people think they see a lot of drones--though usually at night. I am pretty confident that I can spot the difference between an airplane, a helicopter, and a drone even at night, but, when it's just lights in the dark, I wouldn't swear to it. This was broad daylight, and there is no mistaking this for anything else. My picture isn't great, but it's a picture of a drone. Who it belongs to? Uncertain. But it was in a vulnerable neighborhood and spent a lot of time circling me and the school bus drop-off area.
Otherwise, despite a few lulls and the Food Communists trying to figure out a sustainable schedule that doesn't exhaust its volunteers or its funds, I still spend an hour or two packing groceries pretty much every day that they're open and in operation. Food is still flying out the door. Food insecurity is real? But, also there are plenty of people who are still trying to recover from Metro Surge, wages lost because of it, etc.
I did manage to read a couple of things, though! Shawn needed me to go to the library pick up some Minnesota-centric cookbooks to be donated to the history center and, since I was there, I decided to peruse the manga section. I brought a bunch home. But, in the last couple of days I read A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici (Volume 1) and My Oh My, Atami-kun by Tanuma Asa. Both are lightly humorous, the first largely being a send-up of all the yaoi tropes. I actually like My Oh My, Atami-kun better because... well, largely because I'm a tough sell on comedy, generally, and part of me felt like A Man Who Defies the World of BL was asking me to lean into the supposed hilarity of trying to avoid catching Teh Gay and so it ended up feeling a touch homophobic. This sense was made worse by watching the first episode of the live-action TV show by the same name. My Oh My, Atami-kun also plays into the stereotypes a bit, by having Atami being the kind of gay who is constantly falling in love at first sight. But, there's a lot more found family stuff that's taken very seriously and some really great straight + gay friendships that are continuing throughout (I read the first volume that I got from the library and then immediately tracked down everything that's on the pirate sites. Whcih, shame on me, but I liked it that much.)
My Thirsty Sword Lesbians game ended up being canceleld for the second time in as many months, but people were sick and some were travelling and had thought they could videocall in, but couldn't after all. Alas!
So, that's me. I'm just keepin' on keepin' on in the resistance and life. How's by you?
One thing that one has to accept with Dickens is that his heroines will be long-suffering, and that men will decide what's good for them, for which they will be grateful.
Given that, I think this the best of his books.
It has the fewest Victorian-plot coincidences, and it has the most and best swathes of bitingly funny satire of soi-disant high society. How the Lammle marriage comes about, and how each of them, in becoming a couple, brings the other down from spoken moral rectitude to the barest pretense of it is as horrific in a quiet way as all the rantings, drownings, and so on.
Bradley Headstone is a remarkably believable depiction of the stalker boyfriend who can't seem to stop himself from sinking into obsession--and violence. Eugene Wrayburn is a fascinating, witty guy for an idle dog.
There are some bits of brilliance--the depiction of the riverside society; Mr. Boffins' educational plan; the Veneering parties.
There were signs of actual personality on Bella's part (when we meet her, she is mourning over being forced to wear black because the guy she was engaged to--whom she had never met--had drowned, which pretty much has finished her socially. Why shouldn't she mourn?) even if the machinations behind her romance are quite wince-worthy.
Dickens also tries to make up for comfortably unexamined antisemitism, and the subsidiary characters are wonderfully memorable.
Altogether it's a real page-turner. Glad I reread it.
Given that, I think this the best of his books.
It has the fewest Victorian-plot coincidences, and it has the most and best swathes of bitingly funny satire of soi-disant high society. How the Lammle marriage comes about, and how each of them, in becoming a couple, brings the other down from spoken moral rectitude to the barest pretense of it is as horrific in a quiet way as all the rantings, drownings, and so on.
Bradley Headstone is a remarkably believable depiction of the stalker boyfriend who can't seem to stop himself from sinking into obsession--and violence. Eugene Wrayburn is a fascinating, witty guy for an idle dog.
There are some bits of brilliance--the depiction of the riverside society; Mr. Boffins' educational plan; the Veneering parties.
There were signs of actual personality on Bella's part (when we meet her, she is mourning over being forced to wear black because the guy she was engaged to--whom she had never met--had drowned, which pretty much has finished her socially. Why shouldn't she mourn?) even if the machinations behind her romance are quite wince-worthy.
Dickens also tries to make up for comfortably unexamined antisemitism, and the subsidiary characters are wonderfully memorable.
Altogether it's a real page-turner. Glad I reread it.
Tags:
There's been a rant I have been meaning to turn into an essay for a while, but Ken White (Popehat) has done it better, so I direct you to his really well-written and referenced (though US-centric) article: The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically. Criticism. Is. Not. Censorship, and
This is important in Europe too, not just in the US, because it's a deliberate, specific Russian infowar tactic to promote far right events at UK universities and claim censorship if anyone objects. A
( shorter version of my original opinion, building on White's piece )
“Free speech culture” has a natural tendency to discount the speech rights and interests of people who criticize speech.
This is important in Europe too, not just in the US, because it's a deliberate, specific Russian infowar tactic to promote far right events at UK universities and claim censorship if anyone objects. A
network based at [Cambridge] University and backed by Thiel, which it said was using the issue of free speech to “normalise white nationalism on UK campuses”.Neither Putin nor Thiel has anyone's freedom at heart, and they're all too successful at distracting people with a toddler-like notion of "freedom" where you get to say the naughty words without being told off.
( shorter version of my original opinion, building on White's piece )
My translation of “Bodyhoppers” by Rocío Vega, published at Clarkesworld Magazine, has been nominated in the category of the Best Translated Short Fiction for the British Science Fiction Association Awards. The annual awards are voted on by members of the BSFA and will be presented at this year’s British National Science Fiction Convention, called Eastercon because it takes place over Easter weekend, April 3 to 6.
I’m honored to be listed among such talented translators, and the full BSFA Awards shortlist is a great reading list. Congratulations to all the nominees!
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