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With just over a day left, I have completed a column on the regular adult reading bingo card (about ten days ago), and one on the "more reading" card (this afternoon).

On the main card:

Staff recommendation: Shut Up and Read, by Jeannine A. Cook (I borrowed this from the library because of BPL summer reading.)
Learn a Boston fact: Allston is named after a painter (I spent some time wandering around Wikipedia to find a Boston fact I didn't know.)
Orange cover: The Dragon Has Some Complaints, by John Wiswell
Learn a new word: "bisonoric," describes a kind of accordion that has two tunings at the same time. From a conversation on the Scintillation Discord.
Page to screen: Green for Danger, by Christianna Brand

Law of Vengeance side story

WAIT

War is the true test of a man's spirit. Or so Brendon thought, till the eve of war.

( Read more... )

redbird

I've been trying to note things that work for the BPL summer reading bingo, and I think I have a bingo on one card, after looking online at the covers of ebooks that I read on my (black-and-white) kindle.

Eleanor Norton, Life Lessons from Historical Women: a collection of short biographies and online-style lists like "ten Roman women not to cross." Some of it was funny, though less than the cover blurb promised; some of that may be that I'm missing UK references. I already knew about some of the women she writes about, notably Artemisia Gentileschi and Inayat Noor Khan, but some were new to me.
Cameron Reed, What We Are Seeking: science fiction with good, interesting world-building, and a viewpoint character I enjoyed reading about. The ending felt abrupt, but there may be no better stopping point unless Reed wants to write a sequel.
Celia Lake, Silent Circuit, another book in her Albion universe. I liked it, but if I'd been reading for the romance I might not have; an afterword promises that the character will get her happy ending in the next book.
Seanan McGuire, Butterfly Effects: an InCryptid book, what happened after Sarah saved the world. Fast-moving, but it felt a bit thin.
Natalie Zina Walschots, Villain: this is a sequel to Hench, good but not funny the way that was. The main character has an impressively dysfunctional relationship with her boss, and sort of realizes that.
John Wiswell, The Dragon Has Some Complaints. I liked this fantasy novel, but didn't make any notes. (It did let me check the "orange cover" box.)
Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter, The Norm Chronicles: a chatty discussion of probability, risk, the differences between them, and how much of this is subjective, because it depends on whether someone cares about an outcome.
Ruthanna Emrys, The Sheltering Fire: a fantasy novella in which three old friends move into a house that can be a magical refuge, but only as long as the residents offer shelter to anyone who asks, on the condition that the newcomers respect rules of hospitality. Good.
Ardes Shea, "It's Classified," a short memoir of a year working at the Hanford site during World War II, by a woman who knew only that she was working on a classified military project. This was part of my Groundhog Day gift exchange, and counts for "from your TBR pile."

labingi

I have written a modest Substack rant about ST:TNW showing MAGA-style thinking with its recurrent prioritization of in-group loyalty over other moral considerations.

I've saved my less polished rant on season 4, episode 4 for here (spoilers for the ep.):( Read more... )

isis

I broke my streak of writing only at Yuletide to pick up a pinch hit for Fandom 5K, because I could not resist

lapsedpacifist's prompt "some form of Travis Tate interact[ing] with either Varl or Aloy (or both of them), either right after the events of Zero Dawn or during Forbidden West. Maybe an AI emulation of his personality or his uploaded mind?"

Definitely Not a Goddess (7053 words) by Isis
Fandom: Horizon (Video Games)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aloy & Travis Tate
Characters: Aloy (Horizon), Varl (Horizon), Zo (Horizon), Travis Tate (Horizon)
Additional Tags: Mentioned Erend (Horizon), The tiniest hint of Varl/Zo, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ted Faro sucks, The GAIA Gang (Horizon), Except they're the Travis Tate Gang, Game: Horizon Forbidden West, Quest: The Eye of the Earth, Some dialogue lifted from canon
Summary: “Turns out that wasn’t a GAIA kernel,” Aloy said to Varl. “That, apparently, is Travis Tate.”

This story probably requires knowledge of the games (both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West) to make sense (and to be entertaining)! But basically, I've AU'ed the quest in which Aloy activates the main terraforming program GAIA, who appears as a hologram Aloy's people consider the Goddess, such that it's not GAIA's kernel she slots into the computer, but an uploaded copy of the most annoying computer whiz of the Old World. And if you think I was heavily inspired by Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse, you are absolutely right.

rmc28

https://theconversation.com/five-fiction-books-that-will-help-you-understand-ukraine-290003

The City by Valerian Pidmohylnyi (1928). Translated and introduced by Maxim Tarnawsky in 2025.
- not in any of my libraries
- Kindle/paperback from £17
Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko (1996). Translated by Halyna Hryn in 2011.
- not in any of my libraries
- KU or 99p on Kindle
- paperback from £7
Voroshilovgrad by Serhiy Zhadan (2010). Translated by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Wheeler in 2016.
- paperback available from Suffolk libraries
- paperback from ~£8, Kindle from ~£12
Felix Austria by Sophia Andrukhovych (2014). Translated and introduced by Vitaly Chernetsky in an edition to be published in January 2027.
- unsurprisingly not in any libraries as not yet published
- can pre-order Kindle for 15 Dec 2026, or paperback for 29 Jan 2027
Crimean Fig / Qırım İnciri: Contemporary Crimean Tatar Poetry and Fiction (2025). Edited by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, Anastasia Levkova and Askold Melnyczuk. With an introduction by Alim Aliev.
- not in any of my libraries
- paperback for ~£16.50

I have bought Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex and requested Voroshilovgrad from the library. Let's see how I get on.

makamu

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

Current Mood: busy

rmc28

I started running again today, and blew the dust off c25k with a lengthy update of the whys, hows and whats.

I don't love running; I do like having run.

duskpeterson

For those of you who receive my posts by email: I'm switching my newsletter service to Buttondown, which is a nicer newsletter distribution service than the one I've been using. (Among Buttondown's other clients are OTW.) I'll be importing my current subscribers' email addresses into Buttondown; I don't think you'll need to reconfirm your subscription, but if I'm wrong about this, you'll know why you're receiving a confirmation request. If you decide to unsubscribe, now or later, you can do so at any time by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter. If you decide to resubscribe at a later date, you can do so through my blog or website.

After this email, you'll no longer receive emails from me via follow.it. My future emails will come to you via Buttondown. If you don't receive any more emails from me by the beginning of next month, check your spam folder to see whether the Buttondown-distributed newsletter has ended up there.

Among the features of my new newsletter are the following:

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Aside from knowing your email address, I don't track you in any way. (Tracking is optional at Buttondown; I've opted out.)
More on Buttondown's privacy policy.

If anyone has problems or questions concerning the new service, feel free to email me. If you're reading this on my blog and want to sign up to receive my blog entries by email, you can subscribe here.

isis

In reading news, sort of: back in June I had to stop by the library to renew my card, and while I was there I got talked into signing up for their Summer Reading Challenge, which involved entering what I'd read into their app - the selling point was that they did prize draws, separate for adults and children, and according to the librarian, "There aren't many adults signed up, and the prizes are really good, so you'd have a good chance of winning!"

Goodies I got from the Summer Reading Challenge!

Yep, I won a big tote bag filled with Stuff: a Constellation Mug (the constellations appear when it's filled with hot liquid), a scented candle, a tea towel, a notepad, several pens, a beer koozie, a t-shirt, a cloth reusable bag, a book (I got to pick from a small selection, and chose The Wide Wide Sea because it seemed up my alley), and a "Book Trove" consisting of a copy of City of Brass with post-its marking where to open each of 7 packages - okay, I've already read it, but it will be fun to read again!

What I've recently finished reading:

Blitz by Daniel O'Malley, which is the 3rd book in the Checquy Files series about the organization of people with weird powers who keep Britain safe from the supernatural. This one has an interesting parallel narrative, alternating a story about the modern-day operatives we know from the previous book (well, sort of; each book so far has centered on new characters, so the familiar characters are only in minor roles here) with a story about, as you might guess from the title, World War II. The stories are really only very tenuously connected, by a reveal nearly at the end, but both are interesting tales. The present day story is about Lyn, a librarian (married, with a child) who abruptly manifests powers and is swiftly taken into the secrecy of the Checquy, which in a way parallels the first book's brilliant amnesia narrative. The historical story is about three young women who are (like all Checquy operatives) chafing at the restriction against involvement in the war (because they don't want their enemies to know that Britain has people with weird powers), and then oops, they accidentally get involved.

I did laugh out loud at this marvelous easter egg, in which Lyn is learning about historical people with powers, who of course concealed them...

The librarian part of Lyn's mind perked up and cleared its throat. "Gaul was ruled by the Romans then, right?" she asked.

"Well, not entirely," said Arndt. "There was some village in Brittany that they never managed to conquer. But apart from that, yes, Gaul was occupied by the Romans."

What I recently finished watching:

Outlander, the last season, which is roughly the book Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. Mostly I was pleased that it felt much more compact than the rambling doorstopper it was based on, but it was interesting to note the changes from the book (and also to figure out why they made those changes).

rmc28

Today I

wrangled laundry (the backlog from being away was ... large)
went to the library and picked up two reserved books (the very last day I could before they would be returned to the pool and I would have lost my £1 of reservation fees)
had a very cheap eye test from Boots (special offer in the advantage card app)
took my prescription home and ordered replacement glasses with an updated prescription (I have both distance and computer glasses, no I don't want varifocals, and I managed to lose the distance glasses and break the computer glasses in the last three months; I have been using the previous prescription glasses which cover both but are now nearly five years old and "good enough" but not great)

all before noon.

And then I didn't really want to do anything else, but I'd committed to bonus hockey practice in Lee Valley in the evening. (Picking up teammate E on the way, taking kit for teammate O2, which I'd retrieved for her from the uni kit room Tuesday, and meeting her there.) I read a bit of an entirely different library book, and wrote a couple of dreamwidth posts, and had some very good conversation with my brother J when he came over for a visit, before it was time to drive south.

Practice was excellent and exhausting and I'm very glad I went. After getting home and doing all the post-practice faff (hang up kit, shower, start yet another laundry load, make some food) I watched the newest Ted Lasso episode over my post-practice meal. Maybe possibly I am wound down enough now to sleep.

rmc28

We've just had a long weekend visiting family in Sheffield. I picked up the hire car first thing Saturday, got luggage and family loaded into it, and got under way before 10am. Later than planned but not bad at all. Driving music was Hadestown (original broadway cast recording) which got us to the outskirts of Sheffield, and then I switched to the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack.

We had a mildly chaotic lunch and afternoon walk along the Rivelin valley, finishing at a pub for more food and recovery. Notable moment parking the car and deciding we couldn't get out until Test Drive had finished playing. Nine children, seven adults and two dogs on the walk, an eighth adult (my mother-in-law Louise) joining us at the pub. After that I took my household to our airbnb for the rest of the day. fanf napped and the offspring insisted I watch John Wick with them.

Sunday we had another walk+pub: smaller group and longer walk, pub lunch substantial and tasty. Then back to our airbnb and this time I suggested the film. Thankfully Project Hail Mary was a hit with both offspring. Monday morning C and I went to iceSheffield for a public skate (yes of course we brought our ice skates on holiday), before all four of us went over to Louise's place for lunch and conversation and, it turned out, more films: Speed (my first time) and Con Air (very much not my first time). Tuesday Louise joined us for family brunch and Lego at the Builders Brew Cafe before I drove us all back to Cambridge in the afternoon.

(I'd originally planned to listen to the London live recording of Hadestown on the way home, followed probably by the Percy Jackson musical, but N asked for Hadestown OBCR again)

rmc28

I've just had two weekends in a row in Sheffield. The first was the Draft Tournament, which as always was a delight. I got my place from the waitlist on Monday, booked Friday afternoon off work to travel up, and got a flexible train ticket. Flexible because I spotted from the tournament timings that if my team came in 5th or 6th and if I was prompt getting changed and got a taxi at each end, I could just get back to Cambridge by train in time to get to (most) of uni practice Sunday evening. And I can't resist that kind of logistics adventure. (Driving would have made it potentially possible for 3rd-4th place too, but car hire was going to be at least twice as expensive even with the taxis, so train it was. Next year I'll have my car ...)

On the way up, my train was delayed due a bridge strike, and I was over an hour late into Sheffield. On the one hand, this meant a much quicker turnaround at the hotel than I'd originally planned; on the other I got Delay Repay of 50% on the ticket, and I still managed to meet up with some of my lovely hockey player friends and ride the tram together to the Draft party.

I ended up on team Iron Maiden, whose jerseys were my second-favourite of the tournament, and we had both the first and the last game on Saturday, but in compensation a very leisurely start on Sunday. I knew a couple of my new teammates already, but most were new to me; as always it's kind of magical to feel a team come together from a bunch of people. Saturday evening I treated myself to IKEA meatballs for dinner, followed by a bit of shopping (small things only, they had to fit in my bags to get home again). From there I joined the Saturday pub social in town, and tagged along with a couple of friends to a couple more pubs before finally getting a generous lift back to my hotel from longtime tournament buddy A and his dad (who I have met multiple times but forgot that I had ... argh for social embarrassment).

The tournament places for 1st and 6th place were determined by the end of Saturday, but places 2-5 went right down to the final round-robin game on Sunday, which itself went excitingly against expectations for the first half. This is testament to the efforts to balance the draft rounds by the hard working team behind the scenes, I think! My team ended up in fifth place after all, and won our 5-6 final, and to my astonishment I was given tournament MVP for our team. (Pretty sure it was for off-ice contribution rather on-ice, but I did get that one sweet goal off a rebound from my rather more prolifically-scoring teammate.) And then I thanked my team, got some photos with some of my favourite people, and headed out for my taxi. The first train was a bit delayed but everything else on the journey went to plan and I got some uni practice time (in my tournament jersey) and a lift home from Cambridge rink, and all was good.

runpunkrun

In another life, parts of this near-future speculative novel set on an archipelago of manufactured islands (and old cruise ships) floating off the coast of California and populated with what we would recognize as so-called "free citizens" (dodging taxes and jail time, mostly) were once short stories, and despite Kritzer's pleasant and assured prose, I think the cracks show. It's also the kind of YA where the world's problems (and solutions) are unrealistically flattened. I had so many questions about the way this society functioned that I could barely concentrate on the story in the beginning. Sample question: If most goods need to be imported, at an enormous cost, then why are these children regularly drinking coffee?

But this is written at such a fast clip you won't have much time to wonder over the details. There's basically no downtime as thing after thing happens to Beck Garrison, a preternaturally self-possessed sixteen-year-old who grew up on the seastead and is extremely good at finding items people are looking to trade for. When the stead realizes her talents extend to missing people, well, check out the content notes. Things get real. And Beck rises to the occasion. Almost unbelievably so.

The number of inconsistencies, repetitions, and copy errors were a bit annoying, and suggest this wasn't given a thorough edit before publishing, but it's still an entertaining read, and Beck's competence levels are off the charts as she works to make her home a better place. It's a straight up power fantasy untroubled by petty details, but an alluring one. Especially now.

Contains: human trafficking, bonded labor (i.e. slavery), child custody violations, union busting, assassination, threats of terrorism, dead bodies, infectious disease, descriptions of compulsive behavior, bioweapons, anti-vaxxers, and shitty dads.

redbird

I am home in Boston, where Cattitude and Adrian were very glad to see me, as was our fluffy cat.

Tired, but that's mostly because I had trouble sleeping last night, not because of the trip.

I had trouble finding my Lyft ride at Logan, because they told me both the wrong part of the lot and the wrong color for the car, but the driver called me and we sorted it out--this particular nuisance was not his doing.

ETA: I am doing some of the PT that I hadn't done while I was in Montreal, carefully. That's mostly things that need equipment I didn't pack, but also a few I just forgot about. Tomorrow's tasks include calling my neurologist's office to reschedule my next appointment: they called today to say he wouldn't be in the office that day.

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Summer Reading Bingo 2026

Rambles on Frodo Making a Good Ringbearer (So I Don't Lose Them)

FIC: Wait (The Three Lands: Law of Vengeance side story)

Law of Vengeance side story

WAIT

recent(ish) reading

A Mild Rant about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

I wrote something!

Ukranian fiction

Fandom Thought Of The Week #1: Miami Vice Trailers

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wednesday reads and things

A day off at home

Sheffield weekend 2 of 2

Sheffield weekend 1 of 2

Liberty's Daughter, by Naomi Kritzer

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