halojedha | Reading

Finished recently:

These are all parts of ongoing series, and all fantasy (in significantly different styles)

Testament of Mute Things, by Lois McMaster Bujold (a Penric novella)

Apt to be Suspicious, by Celia Lake

To Ride a Rising Storm, by Moniquill Blackgoose: this doesn't just leave room for a sequel, it ends on a cliffhanger. Strongly recommended. Definitely start with her first novel, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, for world-building and if you care about spoilers. (I think the Bujold and Lake books would both work as starting points for reading those series.)

I am currently partway through Ada Palmer's Inventing the Renaissance, which is chewy nonfiction.

We just finished our latest read-aloud book, Half Magic by Edward Eager. Adrian and Cattitude had read this before, I hadn't, we all enjoyed it.

rebeccmeister

Cats: 3, Rebeccmeister: 0

I think maybe this time he squeezed out near the door? Hard to tell. At least he didn't go very far and he came when I called him?

Oh cats.

kaberett

Via divers alarums and excursions we have established that the oven seems to trip All The Electrics... when it hits A Certain Temperature. ( Read more... )

But. BUT. Today I SAW THE BAT for the first time this year (having been doing a questionable job of actually managing to watch for it at bat o'clock over the last several weeks); and my Special Interest In Moving My Body went surprisingly well; and A curled up on the sofa and did some more Reading About Special Interest with me; and I am actually doing alright.

oursin

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.

cimorene

"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"

liv

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 “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 )

rebeccmeister

I think it was maybe Saturday where I let the cats out on the catio, then came back later and observed that George was clearly NOT inside the catio but rather just outside, nosing around in the grass like he does. Hmm. I was able to call him over and hauled him back indoors, but didn't have the time or wherewithal to figure out how he'd escaped this time. Had the extra layer of netting made it easier for him to climb the bush and up and out somehow?

I found my answer this morning:

The staples that had held the bottom of the chicken wire to the ground had pulled up. This should be simpler to remedy, at least! The cats will be glad; they have been frantic to go outside again and have been charging all over the house and yelling about their discontent.

We finally have the first sign of spring at the house: the snowdrops are up. This is them yesterday:

This is them today:

There are flower and leaf buds appearing on a number of things.

We're still going to dip back down below freezing again on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, but it's a start.

I need to trim the raspberry canes.

rmc28

This is an 800 year old play based on events 2,500 years ago in China, the first Chinese play to be translated into any European language (about 300 years ago). The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned James Fenton to adapt it for a production about 13 years ago, and a student theatre group are putting that adaptation on at the ADC in Cambridge this week.

I went to see it last night with Charles, and also Olivia, one of my friends from Womens Blues. (We then found two of my Huskies teammates in the audience so it became an accidental hockey social.) We saw a little first-night talk beforehand from the director and some of the actors, about why they chose this play and some of their favourite lines and aspects of the characters they play. The play itself was very good, very gripping, a revenge tragedy with a very high body count and an ending I didn't quite expect.

The kind of evening that makes me remember how much I like living in this weird little city in the fens.

(and, in further "wow I love living in walking distance of the ADC" news, here's what I'm hoping to get to between now and early May:

Into The Woods (famous musical)
Olympus Unscripted (improv show on greek myths theme)
Chekov's Four Farces (what it says on the tin)
Next to Normal (musical about mental illness)
The Ferryman (play about the Irish Troubles)
Medea (musical adaptation of Euripedes play)

)

oursin

Happy birthday,

parthenia!

rejectomorph

Tonight I'm not eating dinner. I didn't eat dinner last night either, but I did open a can of soup. Tonight I'm not even doing that. I made a malted earlier and that will have to provide sufficient nourishment. I have neither energy for cooking nor appetite for eating. My neck, my sinuses, and my right ear are all doing weird shit, putting me quite out of sorts and forcing me to remind myself that at least I'm not in the fecking middle east.

So things are relatively great in the un-bombed mini-metropolis, for now anyway. The Van Allen Probe, a 1,300 pound space craft, is supposed to enter the atmosphere about now and burn up, though parts of it might crash into earth. The odds of anyone getting hit are small, but wouldn't that be a spectacular way to go? Way better than the lingering misery I'm expecting to endure. Odds are slight, as I said, but I can dream.

Joe McDonald, of the band Country Joe and the Fish, died a couple of days ago. This was one of the first full-on psychedelic bands of the sixties, and I suffered a bout of nostalgia, remembering this doper classic of 1967. RIP, Joe.

Watch on YouTube

kaberett

Back at the beginning of January beadsbuttonslace wrote up some reflections on this book, which interested me enough that I put in a hold on my library's only digital copy, which was an audiobook, and then I managed to listen to it in under a week, and now I am subscribed to Johnston's newsletter (and reading its archives) and also trying to work out whether I want to buy a physical copy or a digital copy for my own library.

Which is to say: I liked it. A lot.

( Read more... )

And some final notes:

it was only earlier today that I realised that an article that did the rounds a little while ago, The new MacBook keyboard is ruining my life... is BY THIS SAME PERSON
at least two of you will be delighted to know that in the Epilogue, she ( spoilers... )

pauraque

This is part three of my book club notes on The Black Fantastic. [Part 1, part 2.]

All of this batch of stories are available online!

"The Venus Effect" by Violet Allen (2016)

( The authorial voice repeatedly tries to write stories in different genres, only to be stopped each time by the Black protagonist falling victim to police violence. )

"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by Phenderson Djèlí Clark (2018)

( What it says on the tin, in an alternate universe where magic is part of daily life. )

"The Hospital Where" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2018)

( An aspiring writer makes a Faustian bargain. )

"The Ones Who Stay and Fight" by N.K. Jemisin (2018)

( A response to Le Guin, in which a utopia has a dark side. Maybe. )

oursin

So really, there isn't a lot of point in going diving into the rabbit-hole that's just opened up.

I.e. I am revising my old piece of work for the Fellows' presentations session, and I thought, why not just see if name of author of obscure feminist work cited appears in British Newspaper Archive, which at time I was writing was less in habit of habitually consulting on odd points (did not, I think, have a subscription, for one thing). As otherwise I had no info on her at all.

And, blow me down, she may only have written one book but seems to have committed the odd journalistic opinion piece, and furthermore, is listed as being one of the founders of an organisation set up by Old Suffragettes (or possibly -ists).

Which I find someone has Has Writ A Book About, as one of those women's orgs that have been condescended to by posterity as about the little dears getting together to chat, bless the ladies, and turns out to have been rather more activist in its sphere than one reckoned.

Library to which I have access has copy, but will not let me have online access to ebook for some reason, sigh.

And really, I do have other things to do (thesis to read, book to review, have been solicited to do a podcast, must try and put together a powerpoint for my talk) than dash off down to LSE to look at the archives of the org, right?

Because given the limitations on what it's for, at the moment - however the work in question will develop - it will be a sentence at best, because of time constraints.

Frustration.

elisi

Just a quick signal boost about two Avaaz petitions:

Sudan: Stop the stoning

Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline

rebeccmeister

It is interesting to observe what's happening globally in response to the abrupt closure of a major global oil shipping channel. The impacts on fertilizer prices and ultimately food prices may wind up being pretty terrible. Of course, at the moment, most people are just thinking about prices paid at gas pumps, and are watching global markets fluctuate wildly depending on incoherent statements made by someone who might not have fully thought through the consequences of the decision to attack another country.

I appreciate the person who created a short video highlighting how much money gets incinerated every time military weapons are fired and/or military assets get destroyed, and contrasted that with the financial justifications used to gut public support programs in the U.S. over the past year and a half. Friends who help with domestic food aid efforts are reporting terrible increases in the numbers of people and families seeking help now.

But suddenly I know so much more about which countries are most heavily dependent on foreign oil imports. I don't know that anyone seeking to get people to decrease reliance on fossil fuels would have imagined this sort of scenario as a way to do that. People REALLY don't/can't do well with abrupt cutoffs.

maevedarcy

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

oursin

Happy birthday,

dichroic and

fairestcat!

rejectomorph

Bumbling and napping through the lengthening days and diminishing nights, seldom finding a clue as to what is going on. It has crossed my mind that I have only actually spoken to two people in the last few months, though there have been social media interactions with a few others. In the actual physical space I occupy, I have only had glimpses of a few people other than the two with whom I've exchanged audible words, though I've heard sounds emitted by several unseen or barely seen strangers passing along the path behind my back fence. More often I've heard only the wheels of their bicycles, their footsteps, or the music from their audio devices. As the number and duration of words I've exchanged with my two actual correspondents have been few and far between, I think I might now qualify as a de facto hermit. Well, at least I've finally almost achieved one of my life goals.

lannamichaels

I guess I cannot do the necessary suspension of disbelief/price of admission be in Workplace Fandoms anymore because what I've osmosised of The Pitt Season 2 is a lot of "should characters X, Y, and Z forgive Character A who was abusive and also stole patient medications and -- this part I'm unclear on but it sounds likely -- also practiced medicine in an ER while under the influence? It's very important question on if his apologies were good enough or if people should forgive him or be his friend again" and I'm like "that person should be fired from the hospital, this is not a buddy sitcom where they're all over at each other's apartments and dating each other and their warm opinions of each other matter, this is an emergency room, they are coworkers in a high-pressure high-stakes environment, not friends, he should be fired and they should never see him again and get to decide if they want to invite him to their bookclubs or poker nights or whatever, but the question of 'should they forgive him, has he done enough' is irrelevant because he should lose his medical license."

lirazel

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Page Summary

redbird - recent reading
rebeccmeister - Well FINE, then, George. [cats]
kaberett - apparently we also need a new oven
oursin - Wednesday refuses to be an AI 'subject expert' perish the thort
cimorene - It may be an amiable egg
liv - Freedom of speech
rebeccmeister - Cats: 2, Rebeccmeister: 0 [cats, gardening]
rmc28 - The Orphan of Zhao
oursin - (no subject)
rejectomorph - 52/372: Sound
kaberett - [books, movement] A Physical Education, Casey Johnston
pauraque - The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories, ed. andré m. carrington (2025) [part 3]
oursin - It's a 15 minute presentation, dammit, in a fortnight's time
elisi - Petition
rebeccmeister - Was it an intended or unintended consequence, one must wonder. [politics]
maevedarcy - Multiamory March - Day 09: Triad
oursin - (no subject)
rejectomorph - 52/371: Goals
lannamichaels - everything I know about The Pitt, I don't actually know about The Pitt
lirazel - seems relevant to the interests of my flist

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recent reading

Well FINE, then, George. [cats]

apparently we also need a new oven

Wednesday refuses to be an AI 'subject expert' perish the thort

It may be an amiable egg

Freedom of speech

Cats: 2, Rebeccmeister: 0 [cats, gardening]

The Orphan of Zhao

(no subject)

52/372: Sound

[books, movement] A Physical Education, Casey Johnston

The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories, ed. andré m. carrington (2025) [part 3]

It's a 15 minute presentation, dammit, in a fortnight's time

Petition

Was it an intended or unintended consequence, one must wonder. [politics]

Multiamory March - Day 09: Triad

(no subject)

52/371: Goals

everything I know about The Pitt, I don't actually know about The Pitt

seems relevant to the interests of my flist

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January 2025

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