Weekly Reading

Sep. 20th, 2025 05:25 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
Currently Reading
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science
32%. Middle grade book written by Kate McKinnon of SNL. Three sisters have been kicked out of every etiquette school in town and are about to be shipped off to one in Austria when they get an invite to a new etiquette school they'd never heard of, which turns out to be a school for young mad scientists in disguise. It's amusing so far.

Lone Women
6%. Historical horror about a young black woman who has to flee after her parents' deaths, with a mysterious trunk in tow. I've only just started but it seems very interesting so far.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
19%.

Recently Finished
The Murder Next Door
I enjoyed this. Definitely will read the sequel.

A Gallery of Rogues
This was fun. I hope there are eventually more books in the series.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
I really liked this! And it was great as an audiobook, too, read by Kate Reading who also does the Lady Sherlock books. The daughters of Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde team up with the daughters/creations of Dr Moreau, Victor Frankenstein, and Dr Rappaccini (from a story I was not familiar with), along with Holmes and Watson, to solve a string of murders in Whitechapel. This was so much fun and there are two more books in the series that I'm really looking forward to reading.

The Phantom of New York
Very mediocre middle grade book about a boy who moves into a hotel in New York in a sort of half-hearted witness protection program after his father discovers his boss is doing shady things. The boy eventually finds out that he is descended from the Phantom of New York, a superhero from a hundred years ago who protected the city. Not going to bother with the rest of the series.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru vol. 1-2
Cute high school f/f manga about a girl who starts dating another girl in student council, despite feeling like she doesn't really understand love. These were on a free promo on Amazon Japan, but I'm not sure I was that into it that I need to get the rest of the volumes (eight in total).

Bibliomania
Horror manga about a girl who gets sucked into a book that will kill everyone once it has sucked in 666 people (she's 400 something). There is no way out except to go through each page of the book to the beginning, but that causes mutations and eventually death the closer you get. She chooses that anyway. Interesting twist towards the end, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. It was okay.
numb3r_5ev3n: 7 from Matrix Online (Default)
[personal profile] numb3r_5ev3n
The thing I want to get across to MAGA right now, more than anything else, is that they are creating a future that they themselves will not want to live in once it gets here. They think it will be wonderful, they think it will be everything they wanted, they think they will be blissful once they have made us shut up and disappear...but once we are gone, once their outrage addiction finally starts to fizzle out and and all they have left is burnout, the only ones who will be left to tear apart will be each other. And they're already doing it. The September 10th shooter is a Groyper, after all. It's already started.

MAGA acted like being politely asked to refer to people by their preferred pronouns, or to please wear a mask in the grocery store, or people suggesting they get a vaccine during the pandemic was tyranny - because they've never actually lived in tyranny. They've never actually lived under a regime that actively represses free speech and personal freedoms. They want to claim that "cancel culture" is no different. But at this rate, they're about to find out just how bad government restriction of free speech is by comparison. They wanted to compare the threat of "being cancelled" to persecution for "thought crimes" ala the novel 1984, but they're about to find out how much worse actual government persecution for "thought crimes" is about to get under Trump. They think "the libs" will be the only people affected, and they're about to find out how wrong they are about that.

It's like the MAGAs who go to Russia, thinking it's right wing paradise - only to find that all of their speech and activities are monitored 24/7, and oops, Dad just got conscripted! That's the reality that they're creating for themselves over here. They think living under authoritarianism will be awesome, until they're down in it and realizing that it sucks, and they're begging for someone from the civilized world to please come extract them.

It's being sold to them by the same pack of grifters who learned 24 years ago that if you keep the outrage burning, and keep the fear of the Other stoked to appropriate levels, these folks will gladly turn their brains off and buy anything the grifters want to sell them. But there will come a point that the outrage stops doing it for them, and then all that will be left will be misery. And by then they will have willingly ceded away any power that the Constitution granted them to do anything to save themselves. Yes, even their precious Second Amendment. People who have studied the authoritarian playbook can see this coming a mile away. There will be no one to "come extract them." They'll just be stuck in the Authoritarian Hell they created for themselves.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Really, more of Book Received. One work new to me, science fantasy.

Books Received, September 13 — September 19

Poll #33640 Books Received, September 13 — September 19
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Yalum by Matthew Hughes (September 2025)
5 (19.2%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (3.8%)

Cats!
25 (96.2%)

YOW -> YVR

Sep. 20th, 2025 08:31 am
dagibbs: (Default)
[personal profile] dagibbs
Then on to Squamish.

I'm not making nearly as many of these posts any more. :(

This trip is climbing, to nobody's shock or surprise.

Mid-Nominations Notes

Sep. 20th, 2025 11:40 pm
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Thanks for all your nominations so far! 2732 fandom choices have been submitted so far (note that if two people nominate the same fandom, that counts twice towards that total).

Nominations will close at 9pm UTC 26 September. If your fandom requires evidence, please also submit it by that time. We can't give a decision on all fandoms on the Evidence Post by close of nominations, but the sooner you make your case, the better your chances of a swift answer.

We've seen some very large fandoms among the nominations! Yuletide is an exchange for rare fandoms. We will reject all of the fandoms below, so if one of them is your nomination, please choose again:
  • Baldur's Gate (Video Games) - I & II will be approved, as per evidence, but this label will be rejected

  • Actor RPF

  • Andor (TV)

  • Baldur's Gate (Video Games)

  • Black Sails (TV)

  • 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

  • Deltarune (Video Game)

  • Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)

  • Downton Abbey

  • Gravity Falls

  • Horizon (Video Games)

  • House M.D.

  • 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong

  • The Pitt (TV)

  • プロジェクトセカイ カラフルステージ!| Project SEKAI COLORFUL STAGE! (Video Game)

  • 斉木楠雄のΨ難 | Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan | The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

  • Star Trek: Enterprise

  • Undertale (Video Game)

  • Warframe


We also won't approve "All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms". If you've nominated any of the following fandoms, please either pick a specific piece of media, or argue your case on the evidence post.
  • Ender's Game - All Media Types

  • History Boys - All Media Types

  • Midsomer Murders - All Media Types


We've seen nominations for relationships, original characters, or Reader characters. Please only use the Character field to nominate specific characters who appear in a canon. For exceptions, see the eligibility post.

We've also seen many well-formatted nominations and nominations we are excited about! Please keep them coming.

We are happy to answer questions about nominations.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection [still being tweaked for this year] | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth


Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

Daily Happiness

Sep. 19th, 2025 09:17 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. It's the weekend! And I was able to come home early today, too, which was nice. A lot of the tasks I was working on this week are now in the hands of the IT team for the next step, so while I had a few little things I could do today, I just went home after my afternoon meeting around three or so.

2. We got two multipacks of the new Across the Spider-Verse Lego minifigs in the mail today. Carla's had some good luck with the last few sets of blind box minifigs and got hardly any dupes (I think one set was actually no dupes at all) but this time we did get a few.

If anyone wants these figures, I will ship them anywhere in the US for free. Just let me know.



3. Gemma loves being in Carla's desk chair when it's pushed under the desk. It's so secret.

Almost two weeks' worth of reading

Sep. 19th, 2025 10:54 pm
umadoshi: (autumn leaves)
[personal profile] umadoshi
The seasonal crunch at Dayjob hasn't even started yet (so soon, though) and I already feel like I'm falling behind. >.< But I've been reading, so here's a fairly bare-bones post about that.

[personal profile] scruloose and I finished listening to Exit Strategy, and reluctantly are not moving forward until after said crunch period. This is a good resting point. We're both really enjoying these, which isn't really a surprise (heaven knows everyone raves about the Murderbot audiobooks!) except that I so thoroughly think of myself as not being someone who takes in much(/any) audio media other than music. It's possible that these are the first audiobooks I've listened to since...maybe since some Robert Asprin book on cassette during a family road trip when I was a teenager (which I only recall even that much of because the reader's delivery of "'Gleep', said the dragon" has stuck with me), and whatever snatches of audiobook I've heard while road tripping with Ginny and Kas.

Saint Death's Daughter (C.S.E. Cooney) was a really good read and rather brutal; I imagine I'll pick up the sequel at some point.

Julie Leong's The Teller of Small Fortunes was a much softer book (it may count as "cozy", but that seems to be a very subjective classification). It didn't leave much of a mark on me, but I enjoyed it.

The most recent novel I finished was When Women Were Dragons (Kelly Barnhill), which was one of those books where I didn't think I had much idea of what it would be like but then found it was nothing like I'd (subconsciously, I guess) expected, based on having read a few sentences about it somewhere. It too was good, and the fact that both the tone and the actual unfolding of the concept threw me is on me, not it.

Now I'm reading The Starving Saints (Caitlin Starling), but I'm only a few chapters in.

Non-fiction: Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World is not a fast read, but then, I didn't suppose it would be. Slow progress is still being made.

I mostly don't mention cookbooks I've read, but a couple days ago I finished reading the ebook of The League of Kitchens Cookbook: Brilliant Tips, Secret Methods & Favorite Family Recipes from Around the World by Lisa Kyung Gross and the Women of the League of Kitchens Cooking School, with Rachel Wharton. And then the second book of collected Murderbot novellas (3-4) popped up on Book Outlet, tempting me to place an order even though I ordered from them pretty recently, and they also had the hard copy of The League of Kitchens Cookbook, so I pounced on it.

I don't remember where I heard about it, but someone somewhere mentioned it and then I snapped it up a while back when the ebook was on sale. I had no real idea what the League of Kitchens was until I was reading, and it turns out to be such a neat thing! From the book copy:
Founded in 2014 by Lisa Kyung Gross, the daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, League of Kitchens is a unique cooking school that empowers immigrant women to share culinary expertise and culture through hands-on cooking workshops, both in their homes and online. The instructors pass on their knowledge, skills, recipes, and most importantly, their secrets for how to cook with love. At its heart, League of Kitchens is a celebration of the invaluable contributions of immigrants to our food culture and society.
IIRC from the intro to the book, they don't/didn't go searching for people from specific backgrounds as instructors; rather, it's about finding people who match what they're looking for, regardless of their country of origin. (Here's their current list of instructors.) Some classes are taught online, which is tempting, although I don't realistically like my odds of ever actually signing up.

(One thing I really like about the book is that the recipe instructions are broken down into incredible detail. I pretty much always want more detail than I'm given when learning something or being asked to do something. When I was still very early in the book, I was excitedly calling out to [personal profile] scruloose about how the recipe I was reading--which was not for something super-complicated, I don't think--was broken down into seventeen steps. SEVENTEEN. Yes, please!)

wtfff???

Sep. 19th, 2025 04:06 pm
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
WTF is in Smarties? I thought it was sugar and citric acid. I had 3 little rolls of them yesterday; I'd found them in a bag in the front closet left over from Halloween.

This morning -- ewwwwwwww

It has been like the worst of PMS, as if all the PMS that I might have had since my hysterectomy nearly 20 years ago decided to gang up on me all at once and say WE'RE BACK--SEE WHAT YOU MISSED???

That and no energy, which is actually a godsend because in this mood I'd be more likely to do drastic unforgivable things than not, like look up my infamously terrible ex-boss from years ago and tell her exactly what I thought of her then and still think of her.

Oh yeah, and the trots.

Meds have helped. Chocolate has helped. Coffee with molasses has helped. Toasted whole-wheat flatbread is helping. I'm no longer mad enough to fight the Goauld and winning without a staff weapon (if I had the energy).

But sheesh. I wanted to get things done today and when I stand up I'm a bit too wobbly to go anywhere.

I'm off Smarties forever at this point.
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
This is a prayer for the Witches’ Thanksgiving. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for mead and cider, for cornbread and collards. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for visits, for gratitude, for families. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the deliberate decision to establish connections, to reach out, to take joy in watching others eat. This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for wheat sheaves and pumpkins, for turkey and turnips. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for taking stock, for settling in, for facing the dark. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the courage to say, “There is a place set for you at our table,”* the fire to fight for what we love, the refusal to allow hunger to win. This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for cheeses and ale, for cherries and chestnuts. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for re-establishing balance, for reaching out, for doing more. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the belief that bounty should be shared, that people should be fed, that “only justice can undo a curse.”** This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for squashes and pies, for and rhubarb and roasts. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for the act of sharing, for sitting with guests, for stories by the fire. This is a prayer for Resistance.

May your Mabon be blessed. May you continue to Resist. This is my prayer for you.

-- Hecate Demeter

Bad News From Alpha Centauri A…

Sep. 19th, 2025 10:21 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


There's a planet in the habitable zone... but not an Earthlike planet.

Bad News From Alpha Centauri A…

Sabrena Swept Away by Karuna Riazi

Sep. 19th, 2025 10:14 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Sabrena's life is full of struggles already. The last thing she needs is an other-worldly adventure. Life is, alas, not considerate of a teen's preferences.

Sabrena Swept Away by Karuna Riazi
[syndicated profile] gallus_family_lore_feed

the one across the road however... Did Not. It was a Shell station, and the whole thing looked abandoned. The parking lot was badly cracked and had grass and weeds growing everywhere, some of the fuel nozzles appeared to have been ripped out, and the overhang was leaning dangerously. But. All the lights were on, and even though some of the windows were boarded, you still had a good view of the interior. It looked... well stocked? Like the cashier had just wandered into the back for a sec 2/3

and would be back at any time. But it was still off, somehow, in a way I can't really explain. Just... wrong. Oh! And the lights on the Shell sign worked too! Except, the 's' was burnt out, so it just said: 'HELL'. Definitely the creepiest thing I've seen while driving at night so far. Do you think there's any chance I accidentally wandered too close to the entrance to another dimension? 3/3

OH MAN ENTROPY-RIDDLED GAS STATIONS ARE MY FAVORITE.  

DOUBLY SO ENTROPY-RIDDLED GAS STATIONS IN PLACES WHERE GREAT EVIL WAS SPAWNED AW YEAH.  I love the juxtaposition of decaying roof and weed-filled lot with the clean and well-stocked interior.  Differing levels of entropy is my fave aesthetic.   The “HELL” and missing cashier is a nice touch too.  In spite of appearances, it’s not that dangerous a place if you mind your manners, don’t go under the structurally compromised part of the overhang and bring along the tire iron if you want o go around back.

You def should have bought a candy bar. If you pay for it and toss a buck in the tip jar it’s not cursed.  Say hi to the cashier, ask what they do for fun around there the answer will be incredible- There’s a similar Shell with the burnt-out S and a shambling restaurant named “Boogie’s” next door in Del Norte that I ALWAYS stop at going to and from Durango.  They always remember me becuase I show up pretty much exactly at the same time on the same days every year and make a point of being friendly. Chelsea’s a really nice lady who keeps bees and her son gave me a drawing of a tiger for my fridge.

Also wander around the back to look for sets of eyes glowing back at you from under the dumpster.  Whatever eats there is full of chaotic energies and of immense power but probably also lonely.   Say hi to them.  Don’t feed the wildlife though that’s never a good idea.  One of the Sonocos in Ravenna has a large gray dog that sleeps behind the store under the AC unit.  She’s there every single time I’ve been to Ohio since 1997.  She’s had a white muzzle and arthritis but remains otherwise unchanged, always sitting up and wagging her tail when you come by.

It’s also a great place to pick up a rider if you need one. Most people who have to drive cross-country will tell you to put something in the front seat to keep anything from climbing in with you- a box or a plant but NOT a toy or doll, those can get inhabited.  And most of the time you’d be right- things like to sit in unoccupied chairs but most of them don’t actually want to leave, and are very upset if you ‘kidnap’ them.  The ones that climb into cars while you’re in motion are rude and wicked pranksters at best.  Sometimes, however, you’ll find one who needs to get out of town and on certain roads, you want to have something else in the car.

The stretch of I-80 between Green river Wyoming and Laramie is the worst goddamn part of interstate in the country and I have driven over most of it by now.  It’s dangerously boring, poorly maintained and exposed to the elements and there’s been a white-out blizzard or hurricane-force windstorm every single time I’ve been on it. As in, the only indication of where the road actualyl IS are those tiny little reflective poles they out up every 1/10th of a mile and you can’t drive over 15 mph becuase the wind is ready to flip your tiny Honda off the road becuase fuck you that’s why.

Most of the time I can find a Fedex truck to stick close behind and drive in the half-second of exposed road in their wake but in January 2014 I was coming back from a funeral in Salt Lake City and it was shaping up to be another nasty whiteout drive with nary a truck in sight.  I didn’t have the money to stay in a hotel and it was already getting late and i didn’t want to get stranded if they closed the highway.  I also sure as hell didn’t want to drive that Alone.

So I pulled into the Exxon in Green River, Wyoming.  It’s a silent and lonely place at the best of times but just after sunset in the middle of January when it’s 10 degrees out is just miserable. You step out and are immediately filled with the compulsion to be Anywhere Else.  I pulled up, started filling the tank, then walked around and opened the passenger side door, taking the bag of chips out of the seat.

“Alright here’s the deal-” I announced, leaning against the car and staring at the towers of granite half-buried by the surrounding dessert, dark shapes in a blue-gray sky. “You don’t want to be here, and I don’t want to drive this next bit alone.  I can take you as far as Laramie if you get me through this.  It’s nice.  They have trees and an inexplicably good sushi place.  I’ll drive you, but you have to get out there.  Deal?”  I waited, staring at the towers and Nothing Else, listening to the pump tick until the door shut against the wind.

It was still a white-knuckle drive, headlights on low becuase high-beams only caught the driving snow, wind barreling into the Honda in random gusts, occasionally shoving me into oncoming traffic for a second before I could correct, heart at a constant staccato and bile in my throat.  I didn’t look over at the passenger side more than I had to out of courtesy- things remain unseen for a reason. I got the impression of tall and long-faced and just as terrified as I was but DAMN if the car stuck to the road in spite of the ice, there were no oncoming cars when I got shoved and we even made good time in a few places.  We pulled into the Inexplicably Good Sushi place at the interchange of I-80 and 287 and I put my head on the wheel and cried for a good minute.

“Thank you very much.” I eventually managed. “You were very helpful. I’m gonna get takeout, do you want a Marylin Mon-roll to celebrate?”

“That would be nice.”

“Cool. I’ll leave it on the stump there for you.”

I came back out with takeout, left him his sushi and we parted ways, and I drove the remaining hour back home.

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