Table Guests

Recently Finished
The Reyes Incident
I think I got this on some sort of ebook sale. It feels like the sort of thing where I'd be like "well, it's free or just a dollar, so I'll take a chance". It wasn't great, though. Interesting premise about a woman who comes to the police station with a story of killer mermaids who ate her friends. The writing just wasn't great, though.

Another Appalachia
Memoir about a queer Indian woman who grew up in West Virginia, where her dad had taken a job as a company doctor for one of the chemical companies there in the 70s. I liked this.

A Skinful of Shadows
Set in the 1600s during the English civil war, the MC is the bastard of a powerful family who all have the ability to see ghosts and host them inside themselves. When her mother dies, she is taken in by the family, who it turns out, like to keep bastards close in the event that they need a ghost host, becaue the currently living members of the family are all host to multiple ghosts each, of dead family members. In some cases the host is too weak and becomes completely taken over by the ghosts. This was a neat premise and an enjoyable read. I have never not liked anything by Francis Hardine that I've read, and this was no exception.

Paying the Land
Non-fiction graphic novel about First Nations people in the Northwest Territories. The author is white, but he spent a lot of time interviewing people and it's basically like an illustrated interview. Very interesting.

Hen na E vol. 4

Ojisama to Neko vol. 16

1. Despite a mixup at the airport, I arrived safely in NoCal for my first ever business trip. After I got through security this morning, an airport staff person asked me what airline I was flying on and when I said Southwest, she told me I had to go downstairs and take a shuttle to my gate. This seemed odd to me since I entered at the place at that said Southwest but there’s a lot of construction going on, so I figured maybe it had something to do with that. But when I arrived at the other terminal, it was clear I was in the wrong place, so I had to take the shuttle back. Thankfully I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare so there was still like an hour before boarding and I was able to get breakfast and get to my actual gate in plenty of time. The flight itself is short, only like an hour in the air, though we did have to circle around the airport once before landing because it was so windy they had to come in from the other direction. Amusingly there was a guy from work on my same flight, though we hadn’t realized until boarding that we were traveling together.

2. I have mostly avoided the rain today. It was raining a little traveling from the airport to the store, but I wasn’t the one driving, and it had stopped by the time I arrived. Dry throughout the day, I was able to take a walk after lunch. And my hotel is just across the street. But tonight I had to go out to buy toothpaste and toothbrush because the hotel doesn’t provide them (cheapskates) and I didn’t take my umbrella because it wasn’t supposed to rain for hours, but when I was leaving the store it was pouring, so I had to go back in and buy an umbrella. I actually have one in my suitcase! D: But now I have another one. I did get pretty soaked even with it, but I think I can manage to dry my shoes out with the hairdryer the hotel provided. Tomorrow is supposed to be no rain all day so fingers crossed.

3. There are loads of nice restaurants around and tonight I walked to a sort of food court area where I ended up getting some very tasty yuzu ramen.


Sorry, no cat pics today or tomorrow as posting is fiddle enough from my iPad. I did post on bluesky, though. I’m torachan on bluesky if you want to see cats. Otherwise I will be back to cat posting on Friday.