books

Sep. 21st, 2022 01:30 pm
topaz119: (somanybooks)
When last we chatted, my internet was goooooone (gone!) but they were able to get me onto fiber at a not-overwhelming price, so, yay, I'm not tethering my work laptop through my phone. (It's an exciting life, I know, but it is what it is.)

In actually exciting news, my new, 66-inch long soaking tub just got carried into the house. (squee) I'm hoping to be able to take a celebratory Halloween bath.

okay, it's Wednesday and I actually finished a few books last week, so let's do it

read
Our Crooked Hearts, Melissa Albert == Witchy, multi-generational, lots of female friendships.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank Green == The sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing which is less a sequel and more the second half of the story but it does finish things off. I had a long split between the books, but #2 read them back-to-back and he also felt it was a good wrap-up.

reading
Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li == Ocean's Eleven with group of Chinese-American university students and priceless Chinese artifacts disappearing from Western museums. So far, I'm loving it.

next
Whatever the library sends my way...
topaz119: (books!)
Check-in: It’s in the low 70s, there’s no humidity, it’s sunny and breezy. My skinned/bruised knees are reaching the dramatically colored stage but mostly don’t hurt. Plus, it was frittata morning, so L & I chopped and stirred and chatted companionably, and now we’re out on the oceanside porch with the fruits of our labor and mimosas. It’s glorious.

Books: I’ve actually been reading a fair amount over the summer—some of Jenny Colgan’s more recent efforts, a Kate Clayborn trilogy, some Claudia Gray (Star Wars and Austen (not in the same book!)), random other genres, Borge fiction and non. For details, I’m here on Goodreads (happy to friend/follow back btw).

In the last week…

read
Neon Gods, Katee Roberts == Hades/Persephone, modern AUish, quite possibly the most charming kink I’ve read, in or out of fandom.

reading
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron, Julia Quinn == a graphic novel that has wiiiiild mood swings. We’ll see how it goes.

A Season For Second Chances, Jenny Bayliss == light, contemporary romance about a restaurant owner/chef who leaves her rat bastard of a cheating husband and takes on a house-sitting job in a picturesque British village, as one does. It seems more of a winter read so I may postpone subsequent chapters.

next
There are many, many books on hold so we’ll see what comes in next.


I’m going to wrap up here and go exercise my cranky knees so they don’t get any more stiff so have a lovely day wherever you might be. ❤️❤️❤️
topaz119: (somanybooks)
It’s Ash Wednesday; I’m finding hard to break away from Twitter; and I really don’t want to detail the most recent health issues.

So.

Catching up on books for 2022…

finished
Matrix, by Lauren Groff, which is a fascinating combination of visceral physical sensations and mystical visions, as played out through the life of the 12th Century poet and mystic Marie de France, posited in this novel to be the illegitimate half-sister of Henry II of England (better known around my circle as Elinor of Acquitaine’s second husband.) I had to read in bits and pieces because it was A Lot (" ") to take in, but I’m pretty sure I liked it.

The Last Mrs Summers, Rhys Bowen. I fell behind on my Her Royal Spyness cozy mysteries, so there’s this one and one more to go to catch up. It’s the usual shenanigans, though this time with a Gothic, duMaurier-esque slant, properly located in Cornwall, where Georgie and Belinda go to check out B’s just-inherited property. The usual cast of characters manages to turn up, of course, so we get to check in on everybody as we’re starting on the slippery slope to abdication and WWII.

Lunch in Paris, Elizabeth Bard, in which the author visits France and falls in love and never really leaves, as you do. I mean, it’s the winter; I’m deep into the ANYWHERE BUT HERE throes, plus, there are recipes included, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

The Jane Austen Society, Natalie Jenner. Richard Armitage narrating a book about people who find comfort and solace in the works of JA? I mean, yes?

Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker. Utterly fucking adorable graphic novel of a deaf, Asian-American witch finding a second chance at love with her nonbinary werewolf childhood best friend while they fight nasty demon-raisers. There are lesbian grandmothers and visiting ghosts, too.

reading now
Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz. There’s apparently a dramatic twist coming but I haven’t gotten there yet, so so far this is your basic murder mystery.

Beginner’s Luck, Kate Clayborn. Contemporary romance about a group of friends who win the lottery and can start to see a different life? Right now, there is renovation!porn and we’re just getting to glimpse the issues behind the main characters’ facades.

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey. What with the latest possible twist in the Murdered Princes in the Tower saga, it felt like a good time to go pull this out again. I haven’t read it in probably 20? 30? years and I can’t remember what of the Ricardian mythos actually came from this or what it inspired later.

next
All my holds are coming in at the same time, of course, so I have The Anatomist’s Wife (historical mystery), Master and Apprentice (pre-prequels Qi Gon and Obi Wan), and Sunshine (paranormal vampire romance, which I have no memory of putting on hold, but it doesn’t seem all that far off from my tastes so I’m sure there was a reason.)
topaz119: (somanybooks)
It snowed over the weekend--it didn't really stick at all at the house, but BabyBoy, who's about an hour north of the city got almost 8 inches (and then it all melted in a day or so, which is generally how things work around here.) I didn't mind it not sticking, but it was lovely to look out of the windows and not see dreary rain, but very picturesque snowflakes.

...and onto books...

finished

After not really finishing anything since before Christmas, I wrapped up a bunch of this this past week...

Miss Lattimore's Letter, Suzanne Allain, which I wrapped up by officially marking it DNF and letting it go back to the library for good (I'd already renewed it once, which meant I'd been trying to get through it for 6 weeks, so, yeah, not happening.) This wasn't at all bad, or poorly written, but I just could not bring myself to care about the characters. Social commentary really has to walk a fine line and not everyone is Jane Austen, you know?

Between Two Kingdoms, Suleika Jaouad, audiobook read by the author -- Beautifully written memoir of her twenties, when she was diagnosed with leukemia out of the blue and her life in hospitals and treatments and, equally as interestingly, figuring out how to live once she was 'cured.' I'd started this during the summer, but had to let it go back to the library as it was hitting some uncomfortable parallel's with my situation with D (as his caretaker, rather than his wife) but finally decided to see if I'd gained enough distance from all of that at this point. I think that did happen + I'd almost gotten through the stuff that was pinging way too many nerves, so I finished this up really quickly.

Roselynde, Roberta Gellis -- I found this on my kindle library (I must have picked it up on a sale at some point) and it seemed like a good month for a re-read. This has got to be close to 30 years old and I don't think you can find it in print, but RG writes extremely detailed historical romances, medieval in this case, and it's definitely an old friend, set during the very early years of Richard the Lionheart's rule of England. Suuuuuper-fortuitous timing, me finding this, because Eleanor of Aquitane plays a large role here, and The Matrix just came to me after months on the waitlist from the library, so I am all primed for more of the medieval, this time nuns under her protection.

reading now

The Matrix, Lauren Groff, as noted above, medieval nuns & Eleanor of Aquitaine. I just started, so we'll see how it goes.

This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart, another old favorite on audiobook, to give me something to keep my brain from spiralling while I do the dishes and dust and vacuum.

next
noooooo idea
topaz119: (treelights)
hi, hi, ducking in before the complete holiday madness hits to wish you all a lovely winter holiday of your choice (belated but no less heartfelt for Hannukah and Solstice.)

I finished up work yesterday (though it's really less 'finished' and more 'made myself a list and closed the laptop') and will not go back until January 4. I'm debating deleting Slack off my phone, though we're pretty much closed up for the next fortnight so it should be quiet. (I hate having to reconfigure things when I reinstall.)

Today, I need to excavate the giant pile of shipping boxes and padded envelopes and make sure everything I ordered did indeed come in so that I can make any emergency adjustments tomorrow, if necessary. If I don't have to do anything, I might bake tomorrow, at least some candy cane brownies or sugar cookies that I can smother in sugar sprinkles.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what food I have and what I need--I've already gone by Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for fun stuff (why yes, I did hunt down the last of the Talenti Peppermint Bark gelato across 5 different WF, why do you ask?) I think I have too much food, but all the kids are home and I'm happy to feed them their favorites without resorting to UberEasts or DoorDash so here I am with a jam-packed fridge and two freezers.

Fannishly speaking, I started watching S2 of The Witcher (I think we got to 2 eps) and we watched Tick, Tick, Boom last night (which, if no one has told you, the scene in the diner has every single Broadway legend you can think of in it. I made the kids stop so I could figure everyone out. They were less impressed.) And now I kinda want to go re-watch Rent. I'm still only on Ep 3 of Hawkeye, still haven't seen Shang Chi, and am contemplating going to see Spidey on Monday morning, when hopefully everyone will be other places. (We all finally got our boosters & I got a whole new batch of KN95 masks, I might risk it in the theater. I might also buy extra seats so we have a buffer around us. We’ll see.)

Bookwise, I'm in the middle of my annual re-listen to The Twelve Clues of Christmas, which is one of Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness cozy mysteries, so lots of dead bodies with bonus pre-WWII English country Christmas setting. Next is possibly Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice--no bodies, just minor melodramas in the Scottish countryside, also at Christmas. I've lost count of how many times I've read/listened to them, but listening keeps me company while I run around and try to get things pulled together for the holidays.

Ok, I have shoved lunch at everyone & the kids have headed out to shop, so I am going to start digging through the aforementioned pile of presents & see what’s what.

Oh! I posted another chapter this morning, so my Darcy/Bucky post-WV/TFATWS fic is up over 50K words (and as I had suspected previously, the slow burn blew up so it’s rated Explicit now, waiting in the eye of the storm.

Ok, now I really am going to go deal with holiday stuff. Have a good day/night/morning!
topaz119: (path through the woods)
Hello, how are you all? We're doing a delayed Thanksgiving today, b/c extended family reasons so we have a pumpkin pie in the oven and cranberry sauce going so far. BabyBoy has some Gen Z jazz-to-cook-by playlist going and all is very companionable.

The rest of life continues with being exhausting. Same things--trying to figure out what's going to work with D, buyout at work, kids having needs, house being 50+ years old and needing some attention (and $$$). I'll spare you the whinging.

On the plus side, I finally caught a writing tornado and have written more in November than in the last 6 months combined. Part of it is that the Bucky & Darcy I'm writing in waiting in the eye of the storm (which has cracked 40k words, \o/) are taking their bloody time getting to the burn part of the slow burn so I started a ridiculously porntastic pwp with the same characters, only more damaged from all the stuff and I'm literally not editing it at all, so I get my character development in the WiP and then go write completely OOC (and badly written) sex in the PWP draft. (Of course, now that draft is starting to develop character moments, too, so IDEK.)

I also managed to finish a book--though it was a novella and the audiobook version at that, but hey, everything counts, yeah?

A Spindle Splintered, Alix E Harrow, which is kind of Sleeping Beauty by way of Into the Spiderverse with a bit of the flavor of early-seasons Buffy banter. The first actual review I saw of it on GR was that it was just too pop-culture heavy, which, hah, can you say catnip? (It is very pop-culture-y but this is not a problem IMO.) One of my favorites of the year, for sure.

AND. I have a few fic recs for your weekend--let's call this set Polyamory (As the Endgame) Through The Ages, ;D

the broken-hearted rang their steeple bells, by [archiveofourown.org profile] always_a_slut_for_hc, The Witcher, Geralt/Yennefer/Jaskier, ~7500 words, Mature === If you're going to be evil, try not to pick the bard who's friends with a witcher and a sorceress. And for real, don't send them an invitation to the forced wedding. Geralt and Yennefer to the rescue. Warnings for violence and rape though it's not super-dwelled upon and you know I like my HEAs so it's okay in the end.

Another for Working Days, by [archiveofourown.org profile] SassySnowperson, Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice/Benedick/Don Pedro, ~13,200 words, Mature === AU from Don Pedro's proposal to Beatrice, where he convinces her that yes, he's serious and then is the one to tip her off about the shenanigans with Hero and Claudio, thus sidestepping The Altar Drama and setting everyone on a happier path.

The Heart That Gives Much..., by [archiveofourown.org profile] iberiandoctor, Crazy Rich Asians, Colin/Nick and various (happy, consensual) combinations with Araminta and Rachel, ~8800 words, Mature === Colin's always been in love with Nick; Araminta is super-fine with that (she might actually ship them); Rachel for damn-sure knows how to read the room and might be last on the scene, but knows a winning hand when she sees it. Yay, happy endings.

A Change is as Good as a Rest, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Siria, Ted Lasso, Keeley/Roy/Jamie, ~7500 words, Explicit === Keeley knows what she's doing, don't ever doubt that.
topaz119: (path through the woods)
I was unexpectedly off work yesterday as it was Veteran's/Armistice Day and the new company has it as a holiday. cutting for work annoyances, do feel free to skip )

So, that's been "fun".

In fannish news, the kids and I got take-out and watched Black Widow together on my actual birthday. There might also have been some Rekorderlig involved (though, sadly, no edible glitter.) I guess I'll cut for reaction spoilers, including for the rest of the MCU continuity? )

Also, I meant to post book stuff Wednesday, as is traditional, but I was exhausted by all the work-related stuff and spent the day off dealing with car issues (did need new tires, -$700 USD /o\; did not need new struts/something else, +$2600 \o/ \o/), so let's have it this morning before the rest of life decides it wants to suck up all my energy.

finished
(editor's note: After months and months of not finishing anything, I HAVE SOMETHING TO PUT IN HERE!! wheee!)

Battle Royal, Lucy Hale -- Another of her breezy, fun romances. She writes an excellent opposites attract trope and this one was no different. It's more-or-less Paul Hollywood vs a more whimsical Christina Tosi + crazy cocktails + a minor royal wedding. There's a lot of edible glitter involved, too (though, sadly, only in the kitchen.) So, you know, basically catnip for me.

The Ex-Hex, Erin Sterling (aka, Rachel Hawkins) -- Described on the author's twitter while she was writing it as Hocus Pocus but they f*ck, which is pretty spot on. Nicely seasonal and set up in the North Georgia mountains, so I had extra fun figuring out where she was setting things. Also breezy and fun. (See the theme there?)

reading now
Beowulf, trans Maria Dahvana Headley, narration JD Jackson -- aka, the 'Bro' translation. Definitely helped by the excellent narration of the audiobook, though I think that's really how you should 'read' this no matter what the translation.

Into the Dark, Claudia Gray -- This month's [community profile] swbookclub pick and I am trying to actually read on time & participate. ::is determined:: My first High Republic era book of the new canon.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, Kate Racculia -- Also somewhat atmospheric, given that there are (as noted) ghosts and all. I'm halfway through and while I'm not sure if the actual plot has started, it's a very entertaining story. I just had to take a break b/c of job-related stuff and let it go back to the library but I'm next up on my re-borrow.

The Companion, E. E. Ottoman -- Started this a while ago and have stalled for no discernible reason so I'll not give up on it yet.

Between Two Kingdoms, Suleika Jaouad -- a recommendation from Beach Week, and one that I was engrossed in, but I had to take it slowly as it hits a little too close to home with relationship issues during extended, life-threatening illness (it just landed back in my library inbox, but I think I will let it go to the next person in line as I'm still not sure I'm up for more of RL in my escapist reading.)

The Jane Austen Society, Natalie Jenner -- I barely started this when there was a whoosh of library holds coming in, so it's on the back burner.

There are so many more that I've gotten maybe 20 or 30 pages into, but until I pick them back up, I'm not counting them here. (and let's not even talk about the other 10+ physical books sitting in a stack next to my reading chair. Anything that looks remotely tempting, I'm grabbing b/c my brain is swiss cheese at this point and I never know what's going to work.)

next
I would not blame you if you look at that in-progress list and say words to the effect of 'are you kidding me?' but see above, re: who knows what's going to work these days?

A Spindle Splintered, Alix E Harrow -- a novella that's only a 3-hour audiobook. File this under atmospheric reads (before we descend into the peppermint madness)

Witch, Please, Ann Aguirre -- yet another seasonal read and hopefully another one that's light and fun. I somehow have never read AA, though she is beloved in Romancelandia so I'm hoping for good things.


hmmm, all those autumn/Halloween books don't exactly explain the cocktail with edible glitter this past weekend (it was called Spells by Twilight) but they definitely form more of a pattern that only my brain understands.


Okay, quitting now! Have a good weekend, y'all.
topaz119: (books!)
Thanks to a couple of well-timed cancellations, I got started on all my doctors' visits late last week and am even starting to get all the test results back (all negative so far, but I bet I have to go back in for a diagnostic mammogram b/c they couldn't find my previous records and I have a lot of Stuff that shows up on the scans that we'd finally decided was Just How It Was, but I can see having to go through all of that again to keep everybody's concerns under control w/not having anything to compare this set to.)

D is still not sleeping (or at least not sleeping at night) so neither am I, ugh.

But, it's Wednesday so let's talk a few books.

finished
The Windsor Knot, S. J. Bennet, a cozy mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie writing an episode or two of The Crown, where the Queen solves mysteries with the help of her assistant personal secretary, a Nigerian-English former army officer who now wears sky-high heels and pencil skirts. I listened to the audiobook and it was really a bright spot in the slog that's been the last week or so.

West With the Night, Beryl Markham -- I did finally finish listening to the audiobook and found myself enjoying it all much more than I expected. The memoir is very narrowly focused on exactly what she wanted to reveal, as there were multiple husbands she never even mentioned and the only time Denys Finch-Hatten was mentioned was to talk about his death (as opposed to whatever else was going on with the two of them.) I may have to go find a biography to fill in around the edges.

reading now
The Companion, E. E. Ottoman , which I just started and am not sure how I feel about yet. Set in early 20th Century New York, with trans characters and what is looking to be a poly relationship, there is soooooo much that could go wrong, no matter how highly recommended it comes.

up next
For whatever reason, my brain (which can barely deal with anything but the lightest of fluff these days) is making noises about wanting to read the most recent translation of The Iliad. BabyBoy is all for this, but he's taking almost 20 credit hours this semester, so I doubt he'll be around much to dish, so maybe I'll see if I can placate said brain until the end of his semester.

Otherwise, it's whatever comes in next on the library hold list. And really, I'm just glad I can still manage to scrape out a couple of bits of time each day to let books do what they've always done for me, take me off into a different world, because I doubt I'd be dealing even as well as I might be without them.

Take care of yourselves and be careful with this variant (not the fun, loki-shaped kind). ♥
topaz119: (somanybooks)
I've been trying to pop in here more regularly, but D is having continuing complications & nobody's sleeping much, so all is off-kilter here. We saw a new neurologist today, who had some ideas (he's the guy everybody has been wanting us to see but who literally had no open appointments in all of 2021 when we first started trying to schedule him in February.) So, we'll see how his ideas go, but I'm not counting on anything happening tonight.

At some point, I will probably have something to say about what Disney just did to their FastPass program, but honestly, I am too tired to even try to figure it out today.

Anyway, it's Wednesday and I missed last week, so ... books!

read
Beth and Amy, Virginia Kantra, the second of the modern AU of Little Women, which again, worked better than I feared it might. Laurie is less of a pain; Amy is much more sympathetic; Beth has an actual character arc. (I'm not sure I'm totally into it, but it *was* there.) My favorite, though, was Aunt March (Aunt Phee here.) And for you total Alcott geeks, Kantra even manages to work in a few of the boys from when Jo had the school in the original books. Also, I found myself slipping into 'seeing' the various actors from the most recent movie, especially Meryl Streep. So, yeah, enjoyable, if at times it felt like I was reading a yuletide story rather than a pro work.

The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels & Other Gentlemen and its prequel novella, The Proper Way to Stop a Wedding in Seven Days or Less, Victoria Alexander -- Very light historical romances, Victorian era. Perfectly pleasant, if a little forgettable; but I did enjoy the setting of the main novel in Paris during the 1889 World's Fair/Exposition.

currently reading
Between Two Kingdoms, Suleika Jaouad, a memoir which I'm listening to as read by the author. So, this is an illness memoir, very well-done, but a little bit much to deal with as I'm also dealing with D and his ongoing medical stuff. I let it go back to the library about half-finished and will see if I can carry on when my loan comes back up in a month or two.

The Windsor Knot, SJ Morris, a maybe-not-so-cozy mystery starring Queen Elizabeth and her under-secretary of something or another, a youngish Nigerian woman who E ropes into helping her investigate when a performer at Windsor is found dead (in putatively compromising circumstances) and the police/MI5 are being idiots. It was an Audible deal of the day, and so far, listening to the various staff members trying to figure out how to tell The Queen that her nice Russian pianist apparently accidentally killed himself in the midst of a nice go at some auto-erotic asphyxiation in her attic has been worth every dime I paid.

Also still working on West With the Night and Rogue Squadron, but no real progress on either of those.

next
Whatever the library serves up...
topaz119: (somanybooks)
I barely read anything during Beach Week, but as mentioned in my last post, I'm literally checking off a half-hour with a book per day, so I have a few things to mention here, \o/

read
Dial A for Aunties, Jesse Sutanto -- the one book I managed to finish during Beach Week, a mostly frothy action-adventure-romance with a Indonesian-American heroine, her mom, and her intrepid aunties and their wedding coordinating business.

Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid -- Big, messy family; Malibu in the 80s; sort of an Andre Agassi / Brooke Shields / Steffi Graf messy marriage/divorce in-the-making; surfing. As per usual with TJR, lots going on.

Meg and Jo, Virginia Katran -- Modern-day AU of Little Women, which was surprisingly okay? The highlight, I think, is what she did with Prof Bhaer--he's still older than Jo, but in this case, he's a hot, tattoed, divorced chef. I'm waiting for the 2nd book, which focuses on the younger girls (so far, Beth has not succumbed to scarlet fever, *g*). I think I also liked it b/c she has no love lost for Mr. March/Bronson Alcott, which I totally agree with.

The Eight, Katharine Neville -- My brother's favorite book, which I finally got around to reading. I'd say it was in the vein of The DaVinci Code except it was published 20 years earlier--but there are ancient, mystical artifacts and a murderous quest and no telling who's really on the heroine's side. It's set in the 70s and written in the 80s so there's a fair amount of cringe-worthy sexist/colonialist attitudes, but probably less than you might think.

reading
West With the Night, Beryl Markham -- I've somehow never read this, but I'm surprised how much I'm liking it. She definitely led quite the life, even if she isn't really mentioning the messy bits.

Rogue Squadron, Michael Stackpole -- I started reading this for [community profile] swbookclub months ago and I'm very behind, but I am hanging on and getting through it. It doesn't help that I think someone else is doing the same thing and we keep trading library holds back and forth. Every time I'm about to quit, I think about Patty Jenkins' teaser trailer and I keep going back.

next
The library just downloaded a skip-the-line copy of Sulieka Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms, which came highly recommended from Beach Week, so I'll see about that.
topaz119: (somanybooks)
hi, hello! I got up super-early this morning (D was having muscle spasms (stroke related) and the last round was just late enough that there was no sense trying to go back to sleep) so I started drafting this as an alternative to cleaning the kitchen (which I have not been able to get ahead of since we all came crashing home in March of 2020.)

It's Wednesday, so reading meme day (which I haven't done in months--I'll spare you the full quarterly run-down and just link you to my goodreads for the whole list.

Notable highlights include: )

And since I'm dodging about with the Regency mysteries, here, have a few Regency AUs, both Jon/Sansa from Game of Thrones.

you're in my blood like holy wine, by [archiveofourown.org profile] magneticwave Game of Thrones, Jon/Sansa, ~73,000 words, Explicit === Sansa is very, very good at playing the part of the carefree young lady of the ton, but her game is much more serious and high-stakes than just ballrooms and gowns. Jon is still trying to navigate life now that he's not just a bastard cavalry officer. Mutual pining to the max. Also, Gendry and Arya are too much fun.

The Bastard's Wife, by [archiveofourown.org profile] hkafterdark, Game of Thrones, Jon/Sansa, ~26,000 words, Mature === There's always room for a good marriage-of-convenience plot, right? Especially in a Regency AU. Double-especially when it's less 'convenience' and more 'secretly-in-love-with-all-along', yeah?
topaz119: (somanybooks)
Dear lord, they asked me to mentor someone at the office. Like, an official relationship where we met monthly and all. I may have to consult with my brother, who does this on a regular basis, just to get some idea of what to do. (I mean, normally, I'm the thorn in people's side, always sitting over in the corner where they shove me and deflating their pretensions to clear writing skills, not being asked to share expertise. I need to remember this for when I do the year-end meme and it asks me for something I've never done before.)

In other news, I am so close to finishing off the Steve/Darcy MCU fic I've been playing with over the last few months, soooo close. Last 2k words. HEA. Debating between straight-up smut/fade-to-black. Y'know, the important stuff. cutting for character-related spoilers in the MCU )

...and books

finished
A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold, audiobook == I'm so glad I beat down my internal completest freak and just skipped over all of the many books between the ones I've read (SoH, B, TWA) and just went ahead and listened to this one. I definitely enjoyed it and I realize this book is 20+ years old, but this was such a delightful reveal that I don't want to ruin it for others ) Somewhat surprisingly, my favorite character might actually have been Gregor, so I'm guessing I'll be on an AO3 hunt for a bit.

reading now
The only thing I started new was Laziness Does Not Exist, Devon Price, which I think I gleaned from a podcast last month. Just now starting so no opinion as of yet.

Otherwise, I'm still in with Deal with the Devil, Because Internet, and Obi Wan and Anakin.

next
Possibly Captain Vorpatril's Alliance...

books

Jan. 27th, 2021 11:10 am
topaz119: (somanybooks)
ducking in quickly to post (I wanted to say "2 Wednesdays in a row!" but alas, I missed last week, so uh, 2 Wednesdays in January!)

finished
The Biggest Bet, Maria Konnikova == I did actually enjoy this, though there is a lot more actual poker in it than I'd been expecting. I'm used to glossing over things I don't actually have to understand to catch the greater meaning (it's kind of what I do for a living) but I think it might catch people a little off-guard, since the book is marketed as not really a book about poker. I mean, yeah, it's not a nuts-and-bolts how-to, but she does get into card by card descriptions of rounds. The thing I took away from it was that taking care of yourself is at least as important as strategies learned from the masters. Figuring out what works for you and then making sure to make it happen is never not worth it, so I should stop feeling like I "should" just be able to deal and figure out how to support my ever-flaky brain.

I also bailed on The Old Guard and let it go back to the library. It just wasn't happening (though I am delighted to hear we're apparently getting a second movie.)

reading now
A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold == Yes, Oldest did convince me to skip the intervening books and just go for the prize, which I am enjoying immensely. I'm listening to the audiobook, and since my biggest disconnect earlier was that the narrator sounded too old for Miles, skipping to where he's in his thirties solved all of that.

Deal with the Devil, Kit Rocha == The elevator pitch for this one is: post-apocalyptic mercenary librarians. Clearly, I didn't really have a choice about this one, right from the start (I'm pretty sure there's a tweet about it somewhere on my timeline from when they signed the original publishing deal, years ago.) There's also found family, community building, sex positivity, and the book came with a Bisexual Love Army sticker. I mean. (Happily enough, it's pretty engagingly written and it's set where I live so I'm having fun with the local references to what's survived the apocalypse.)

Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch == I did mention that this one is going slowly, yeah? Still plugging away at it and it will not surprise any of you to know that I am of the Old Internet generation.

Obi Wan and Anakin, Charles Soule == I got distracted away from this one.

next
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is still looking at me reproachfully every time I open the app.

books

Jan. 13th, 2021 01:25 pm
topaz119: (somanybooks)
I had good intentions to start this back up last Wednesday but, well, stuff did happen.

I did manage to read a lot more than I thought I was going to manage last year, mostly due to having audiobooks going whenever I was doing household stuff (to keep my brain from spiralling) and by reading very light books/abandoning anything that didn't hold my attention. If you'd like to connect on GoodReads, where I do actually track my reading (mostly so I have something to jog my memory when people ask what I've read lately rather than feeling like I haven't read anything at all), my booklist is here.

So, trying this again this week...

finished
Christmas at the Island Hotel, Jenny Colgan -- She writes on the continuum between "women's fiction" and romance, and usually produces *exceedingly* fluffy plots about women finding themselves in some super-picturesque small town/island, often with a fair amount of angst. This one was no exception, though the angst is mostly people recovering from a previous angst-fest in a prior book in the series. You definitely should read the previous books because while this is technically focused on one of the minor characters from earlier books, the rest of the cast of characters all have their own, interwoven stories. If you like her books, I think you'd like this one (also, the plot moppet is finally growing up a bit, so she's somewhat less polarizing? Though I miss her mermaid-loving-ways...)

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, Rob Thomas & Jennifer Gresham, audiobook narrated by Kristin Bell --- Set after the events of the (first? was there more than one or a reboot or something?) movie, this was basically like an episode of Veronica Mars in my ears. It was fine, I think; KB made a lot of it work better than it should have, but I still love Keith and Wallace and Mac. Were I inclined to write fic for this book, it would be about how the plain-spoken, hard-working ex-sheriff finds himself embarking on a romantic relationship with a former Victoria's Secrets' underwear model turned hotelier.

reading
The Biggest Bluff, Maria Konnikova, nonfiction about the author's journey into the professional poker world and what it taught her about resilience, chance, and discipline. So far, she's on the floor of the ladies' room with a migraine during the first round/day of the World Series of Poker, so I'm not very far into it.

Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist's look at written language of the internet, which I can almost use as a work-related book. Reading verrrrry slowly.

The Old Guard, Greg Rucka, the graphic novel that the movie was based on, though I might just drop it and go all-in on the movie characterizations.

Obi Wan and Anakin, Charles Soule, another graphic novel--I got it for one of my nephews for Christmas but then there was the Covid outbreak in the family and it's still sitting on my bedroom couch, taunting me. This is probably why you should wrap your presents, not use gift bags, but oh well...

next
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue just dropped from the library, in audio format, so I should probably take that up next, but Oldest almost has me talked into skipping all the Miles books and going straight to A Civil Campaign so we'll see where I end up.
topaz119: (winter)
so that was a day.

yay/wtf
#2 and I had been talking about how Ossoff's yay-we-won speech at 8 a.m. seemed a bit early, but it was a good speech and we felt civically refreshed (plus utterly gobsmacked that we'd actually managed to pull off both Senate wins) and then it was afternoon and holy shit, we were watching an attempted coup.

So, yeah, in retrospect, we're glad he spoke early in the day.

books
I meant to do the Wednesday book meme but obvs that was overcome by events. Since I'm trying to be more interactive here, I'll throw out that I finished Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots, which I really liked except for maybe the end. I didn't *dislike* the end, but I did have an issue or two with it. If you've read it, come tell me what you thought...?

And I'm listening to The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, which is a Veronica Mars novel, narrated by Kristin Bell. It's fun having Veronica in my earbuds, at least so far.

cooking
I finally gave up trying to even pretend to work and went and to figure out what to make for dinner and ended up making the sort of rice you get at Mexican restaurants to jazz up some basic chicken breast cutlets. I posted about it here on [community profile] cookbook_challenge.

It continues the theme of making my own version of packaged food and tl;dr is that I liked the recipe & will prob make it again.

Stay safe, kids. Keep going, the only way out is through.
topaz119: (happy endings)
I’m still not finishing much reading-wise this fall. My brain is just not holding onto things, but I have a few bits and pieces this Wednesday.

read/listen
finished
She Said, Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey – I listened to the audiobook of this (because that’s what version came in first on my library hold list) and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get through. Very compelling, though the last quarter/third dealt with the less triumphant Supreme Court nomination hearings and so were sobering.

now
I have the following books started:
  • The Rules of Magic, Alice Hoffman
  • Spindle Cove, Tessa Dare
  • Lionheart, Sharon Kay Penman (audio)
  • The Bride Test, Helen Hoang

    None of them are calling out to me at the moment, though all of them seem like things I’d like and have been perfectly pleasant as I started them. ::sighs::

    next
    I have the following stack out from the library, yet to be started:
  • Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey
  • Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy : The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, Anne Boyd Rioux
  • The Vanished Bride, Bella Ellis
  • The Proposal, Jasmine Guillory
  • The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman
  • The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, Kevin Kelly
  • The Wedding Party, Jasmine Guillory
  • Heart of the Moors, Holly Black
  • Royal Holiday, Jasmine Guillory

    This does not count the half-dozen or so books I’ve snagged off of Amazon’s deal of the day or my Audible library that is spiraling out of control.

    If I had to guess, I’d say I’ll skip the Guillory backlist and go straight for Royal Holiday (we all know my Modern Royal love + holidays!) with a possible side trip to Holly Black’s Maleficent backstory in Heart of the Moors.

    But who knows, really.

    watch
    netflix
    I’m back on Hell On Wheels, which my brain is *loving* but which gives me nightmares sometimes for its period-appropriate blood/gore/dirt/attitudes. Like I told a friend, Cullen Bohannon is who Malcolm Reynolds thought he was but never quite got that far gone, and the writers thoroughly enjoy twisting that metaphorical knife they’ve got stuck in his guts. I can only take so much of this at a time, though. (If nobody is digging foreign objects out of the human body in any one episode, it’s because everyone is rolling around in the mud or stabbing someone or hanging someone or having PTSD flashbacks to same. There’s a fridged wife, but most of the female characters have agency and wants and needs and desires and work to find their own way in life. It’s enough to balance out for me now.)

    youtube
    I have this big copy/paste project going on at the office, so I knock off an hour a day and stream/listen to Critical Role while I do the mindless stuff. I just started Campaign 2; this might never end.
    I also watch a fair amount of the Disney Food Blog (her voice is suuuuper-soothing and she knows her WDW stuff, highly recommend)
    There’s also the Bon Appetit channel, which I’m finding very entertaining for commuting.

    I haven’t been to the movies in so long… maybe Spiderman: Far From Home….? I think I missed Hustlers in the theaters, but I’d love to see Last Christmas and Little Women and the Rise of Skywalker over the holidays.

    I’m doing fairly well on NaNo, which really sucks up all my spare time, so maybe by the end of the month I’ll shake a little time free…

    Have a good day/night!
  • topaz119: (path through the woods)
    books
    I haven’t been reading a lot since D’s stroke—just not a lot of brain power and my commute is very fractured atm, so I’m moving verrrry slowly through books I would ordinarily zoom through in a week of trains. But I did read Daisy Jones and The Six, which was fun, but ultimately sent me off to find the Fleetwood Mac Behind the Music (a two-parter, b/c they really were that much of a crazy mess, and I say that as someone who listened to Rumours on repeat for a solid year.)

    I also got my hands on Evvie Drake Starts Over, for which my tip for max enjoyment is to mentally cast Anna Kendrick as Evvie and Chris Evans as Dean and just go with it. I also thought I was going to have to yell about certain aspects of Evvie’s marriage being glossed over by the characters, but thankfully that got addressed.

    The prequel to Practical Magic (about the aunts, and presumably the mom) auto-downloaded from the library last night so I should probably get into that soon.

    tv
    I’ve been randomly going through my Netflix queue, with little rhyme or reason, so I’m halfway through John Favreau’s Chef (the series, not the movie, but hey, I’m here for Roy and John cooking through random restaurants and chefs and food people.) It’s not as soothing (or as gorgeous) as Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat, but it’s good for decompressing after work.

    I think I finally hit my limit on Once Upon a Time, though I’m still ff-ing to the Hook/Swan parts (I dunno, it’s a thing, lately.) Also, like I mentioned before, I zoomed through the first season of Hell On Wheels, and am now in a bit of a holding pattern b/c I’m not sure how you bring your characters back after you shove them off that metaphorical cliff, and boy, was there a cliff-shoving.

    In network tv news, I’ve caught a bit of Cobie Smulders’ Stumptown and like it well-enough (when the inevitable love triangle hits, I’m Team!MichaelEaly’s character all.the.way. I mean, the best friend is fine, but yeah, no, ME is fiiiiiiiiine.) #2Son & I are hoarding S4 of The Good Place until his break when we will nom it all in one glorious rush. I may check out the Nancy Drew adaptation, just because people are whinging about how dark it is and it Is Not For Them, kids these days, and whyyyyMillenialswhyyyy, which just punches all my contrarian buttons.

    movies
    I rewatched Practical Magic, basically to drool over the house (and a little over Aidan Quinn’s gorgeous eyes) and how I wiiiish that had been a better overall movie. The house is still amazing & I do love the aunts & their wardrobes. Actually, I love the sisters, too; I just wish for a better, more even tone.

    I also snagged Master of Dark Shadows from the library, and while it is nominally about Dan Curtis, the creator and exec producer (who went on to produce The Winds of War / War and Remembrance mini series, who knew?) it spends a lot of time on Dark Shadows itself, and very lovingly. And it loves the fans, too, which is always nice.

    What’s up with y’all?
    topaz119: (brotherly love)
    Okay, it's Friday. Work is... weird. I'm at the point where I really don't want to talk to people at lunch (b/c they're doubling down on the weird, where I like to push that personal bubble out and get some breathing space) so here are a few diversions from the past week:

    Unfortunately, it sounds as though the Timothee Chalamet non-Shakespearan version of Prince Hal is... not good. (sadface) But, hey, THiddleston did it a few years ago so I had a little palate cleanser with this really very personal St Crispin's Day speech )

    BabyBoy auditions with this monologue a lot, so I have heard it a million times (along with Romeo's 'Tis Torture speech and Sebastian's Is this the air? monologue from Twelfth Night) and usually, people do it very bombastically, but here, TH is really quiet and intensely personal, and it gives this whole other meaning to why people followed him.

    And then, I just finished reading Daisy Jones and The Six, which I enjoyed, but for some reason, the cover was giving me '60s vibes rather than '70s, so I was expecting Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane rather than Fleetwood Mac. It was fine, but it left me itching for some of Grace's vocals (how in the everloving *hell* the group that gave us White Rabbit fell apart enough to do that Starship abomination is beyond me**) but youtube, as always, giveth the good stuff: Jefferson Airplane, Woodstock, White Rabbit )

    (Actually, now that I see Grace in that video, she is *exactly* why I was expecting that era rather than Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. The girl on the cover is the Grace I remember.)


    Also, DragonCon, the video )

    The Maleficent at 2:36 was amazing in person when those wings went out.

    Happy weekend!

    **No, it's really not beyond me: the answer is, as it so often is, capitalism, sigh
    topaz119: (somanybooks)
    Catching up from last month...

    read
    A Dangerous Collaboration, Deanna Raybourn, book #4 of her Veronica Speedwell series of Victorian mysteries. VS is an intrepid lady lepidopterist who roams the world collecting her butterflies and a few men; This one leaned into the Gothic, which I've read since fifth or sixth grade (so, since I was 11 or 12 years old, and yes, that's probably not really an appropriate age to start, but YA didn't exist back then, so I just read all my mom & aunties' castoffs), so I was super-happy with that. I figured out who the murderer was, which means it was dead-simple, because I never actually guess right, but there were a few other twists I didn't see coming, so it was all most satisfying. ALSO, we seem to be done with the extended romantic tease, thank you very much.

    A Prince on Paper, Alyssa Cole, the latest in her Reluctant Royals set of loosely related contemporary romances. This one was as fun as the rest, this time focusing on the daughter of the villain from the first book and the stepson of the king of a small European country (which is sure to border Genovia.) There's a wedding and a fake-engagement and secret philanthropy (and a beloved childhood teddy bear!), all very deftly handled, so you know I had a good time. I hope there are more in this series; they're all crackling good fun and put the lie to the tired old shibboleth that having diverse characters means you have to shove them in just for the sake of 'PC culture'.

    The Shell Seekers and September, Rosamunde Pilcher – Rereads for comfort and distraction. RP writes long, cozy, domestic novels. No murders or mysteries, just people living their lives, dealing with Stuff. There's always EXCELLENT food and scenery, though – Cornwall, London and Gloucestershire in TSS, with London, Majorca, and northern Scotland in September. I always want to go cook giant family meals once I'm done with her books.

    reading
    Hate to Want You, Alyssa Rai – Contemporary romance with an enemies-to-lovers vibe. It's good, but I'm not really in the mood right now…?

    China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan – Just downloaded from the library and I'm liking it better than CRA, but we'll see how it goes...

    next
    Master and Apprentice, Claudia Gray – also just arriving from the library… I feel like the cover has set me up to be disappointed in the book, because I know there is no way the Qi Gong/Obi Wan promised by the delicious cover is going to be delivered in a Disney-approved and published novel, but I'm also telling myself that CG knows her way around fandom so the subtext will be there and very very subtext-y.
    topaz119: (hanging on)
    It's been... quite a while, whoops. Work got ridiculous and I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with going to the office every day and #2Son is taking more classes on campus (which is so exciting I can't even tell you but means I'm either dropping him off or picking him up 4 days/week, which is adding to the logistical issues.) And then, we're having work done at the house, so I've been dancing around crews in and out of the house, plus clearing out rooms/cleaning up the dust after (omg, SO MUCH DUST. EVERYWHERE.)

    Also, it was Winter and I was hating the world (as usual) so there's not much reason to spread those nasty vibes around.

    Anyway, I tried to read my circle and drop a comment here and there, with at least some minimal success, but it's spring now and I got in a dose of Disney therapy and the stupid work project got shifted to another team (where it more logically belongs, even though it's still stupid) and I am finding it easier to breathe, tfg, and I'm hoping to be back a little bit more.

    So, in the middle of all of that nonsense, I was still commuting by train, so I did get some quality reading/audiobook/netflix download time and that seems like a good thing to talk about...

    firstly, I blasted through the last four of the Rivers of London series, all on audiobook (which is how I've done all of them.) I'm not sure what ignited the frenzy, but I did Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, The Hanging Tree, and Lies Sleeping in less than a month, which is something like 45 hours of audio (and I was listening at normal speed, not 1.25x or 1.5). This is entirely due to how awesome Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is as a narrator. I'm pretty sure I never would have made it through Aaronovitch's odes to London architecture if not for how dynamic and engaging the narration was. At one point, BabyBoy (the BFA acting kid) made me replay a couple of scenes as we drove so he could tease out the variations in accents and inflections and take notes for a class, so that was fun. Now I'm all caught up and would be in withdrawal if I hadn't finished the last one right before I hit Disney World (which usually clears everything out of my head by dint of complete overstimulation.)

    Anyway, A+++++, would listen again, must go see if they've done audio of the novellas (and go look for post-canon fic while waiting for more books.) (Oh, and here's a little book trailer for one of the novellas to give you a taste of the stories/narration.)

    I also remembered that I could download shows from Netflix and thus watch things w/o burning through data (which is a thing around the HoB, as we all share this cheap, grandfathered plan that is enough for regular use, but not so much for streaming and I'm currently not in favor of an extra $100/month for an unlimited plan.) So, that's enabled a fair amount of stuff, most gloriously Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which was *such* cognitive whiplash to watch while schlepping to/fro on the train. Still, it was incredibly soothing to have her voice in my head during the dreary winter commutes, where it was gray and dark in both directions. (The link goes to the book, but as lovely as it is, the series is just over-the-top beautiful and nourishing.)

    Also food-related, the boys got me Chrissy Teigen's new cookbook for Christmas (Hungry for More), which I initially assumed was just going to be a fun read (it's like the longform of her twitter/insta, if you're a fan) but has turned out to be a solid source of actual recipes. We're currently 3-for-3 in total wins (the scallop linguini with casino breadcrumbs, chicken teriyaki burgers, and seared fish with herby brown butter.) Honey-garlic shrimp is next on the cooking agenda.

    If you follow me on insta/twitter/fb, you probably noticed that we hit Disney World over spring break. Yes, I know you're shocked. It was just D & I, though, as nobody's spring breaks aligned and there are tickets that are expiring soon (and it goes w/o saying that I'm not giving Disney corporate money for things I haven't used.) So, that was fun -- I got a deal on Priceline that got the Beach Club down to breathable rates; we ended up calling a Minnie Van one morning to get to Magic Kingdom; and D turned out to be a FastPass-refreshing savant, so we had excellent times/rides. I upgraded to an annual pass while we were there and I'm going with the boys in May, once everyone's finals are done with and before BabyBoy starts the summer theater stuff. (Also to clear out their soon-to-be-expiring tickets.)

    The key part of that last paragraph is that I'm now in possession of a WDW Annual Pass. So. If you're feeling the need to run away to Walt's giant playground, ping me & let's see if we can link up. :D

    Okay, if you're still reading, I ♥ you and regardless, I hope you have a good day (/week/month!)

    Expand Cut Tags

    No cut tags

    September 2024

    S M T W T F S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930     

    Most Popular Tags

    Syndicate

    RSS Atom

    Style Credit

    Page generated Jun. 9th, 2025 01:06 am
    Powered by Dreamwidth Studios