the girly who shall end all girls

a lot of long-awaited library holds came through for me, some wonderful and one remarkably disappointing.

i've now read all of The Murderbot Diaries series to date and they are just as good as people say they are.* there's a nice drip of character growth and mysteries solved per novella. Murderbot the self-aware jailbroken SecUnit is a delightfully unreliable narrator, not about events but about their feelings and their friendships. i like the worldbuilding (so much capitalism, itty bitty drones, bingewatching, pretending to be human is so relatable) and especially the behind-the-scenes world of ubiquitous artificial intelligence.

i have also read The House in the Cerulean Sea; where a depressed social worker inspects an orphanage full of nice people. i know that it is supposed to be heartwarming and is beloved by many but it really didn't work for me. ( spoilers and not so mild complaining )

i think i forgot to mention that i bought every Restaurant to Another World light novel that is available in English to read while we were camping in August. they are just as delightful as the anime. the books include more recurring characters, more of the culture of the fantasy world, and more about the life of the chef.


*i deeply resent that the ebook novellas cost the same as a thousand-page paperback novel so i'll still be sticking with the eternal library hold wait for the next one.
**and therefore also Christianity is real and it's the End Times?

I saw Gladiator in the theater, without really knowing anything about it other than Russell Crowe is a gladiator. I was heartily confused to discover that we were supposed to be rooting for the Romans in the opening battle (Barbaren/Barbarians is the fix-it fic of my dreams).

which is to say as part of my continuing historical romance binge, I just finished A Summer to Remember, where I identify way too much with the angry ex and the heroine is my natural enemy. (from the ex's POV she's been dumped by her best friend for a pretty girl who shares no interests with him and is boring as hell.) I would have enjoyed the book much more without the ex subplot, but I know she's being set up for her own book so I'm trying to be optimistic about that rather than feeling like my inner teenager is crying in the bathroom.

1. via tozka, Nina Paley of Sita Sings the Blues fame is a massive (and proud) TERF.

2. this lost baby goat being returned to the wild melted my heart. video, best with sound on.

3. i've been struggling with my hair a bit lately; turns out i failed to notice that the Overtone color-depositing conditioner i've been using has a bad silicone in it. glad i haven't ordered more, at least now i know what's up and how to solve it.

4. The Venture Bros has been cancelled. well, surprise, it took something like 17 years to produce 7 seasons. people are trying to get HBO Max to pick it up, fingers crossed. meanwhile, i realized that we hadn't yet purchased season 7, now that's on order.

5. i am rereading the Queen's Thief books in preparation for the new one coming out in October. squeeeeeee

since the Bay is showing as many Oscar nominated films as it can, i finally took myself to see Little Women. i'd heard raves about it, but i'd also heard that there were some changes beyond breaking up the linear timeline of the book.

actual text conversation as i was walking home:
C: So. Are you angry?
Me: Yes

( a sort of minor thing, and the thing that made me angry - spoilers for the adaptation and the public domain book )

and just, in general, i felt like Gerwig's agenda made an adaptation that didn't represent the substance or the spirit of the book. based on the critical response, it must be better if you don't know anything going in. i'd shelve this adaptation with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

I've been trying to read "This is how You Lose the Time War" but for an epistolary novel with two authors the voices of the two protagonists are so far indistinguishable.

Recently Finished
Never Grow Up
Jackie Chan's episodic autobiography. most interesting revelation: he's functionally illiterate, more literate in English than Chinese but not by much. i feel like there's a lot to be read between the lines and it makes me very curious about what it's like to have lived through the power transition in Hong Kong. this book doesn't really tell that story and i'm sure that's not allowed. also, Chan is textbook ADD.

i enjoyed reading it much like i enjoyed reading Anthony Bourdain - what a charming and talented asshole, i appreciate his work and i'm glad i'll never have to deal with him in real life.

The Seventh Bride
this is a T. Kingfisher book from 47 North that i got for free, read in one or two sittings, and don't remember that clearly. but my impression was favorable? clever girl teams up with other women to beat the odds.

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
got this from the library based on (IIRC) rachelmanija's review. i read it cover-to-cover like a book - the recipes are organized in a sort of narrative with a lot of context - and enjoyed it a great deal. it's currently full of post-it tabs and assuming the bookmarked recipes turn out for me i will probably buy it. really nifty reference for cost and effort comparison for making things from scratch. (she's wrong about homemade coffee liqueur; it's easy and relatively cheap. but otherwise for the things i've already made from scratch i agree with her.) her voice is charming and her chicken ownership story is so true to the experiences of my chicken-raising friends.

Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Tales of Magatama Book 1)
this was in translation and i feel like i would have appreciated it more if i had a stronger Japanese cultural grounding. as it was i kind of hated the heroine and found it emotionally distant and unsatisfying.

China Mountain Zhang
this is a classic literary fiction book about a loser gay dude finding himself with a B plot about a marriage of convenience that turns into something more. it is also set in a near future where China is the world superpower and the US is their client nation and a Mars colony and there's a lot of nifty computer technology and travel and architecture. i still don't know how i feel about it because i was reading it expecting there to be a big international/interplanetary story about a government conspiracy or a revolution and apparently i was interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. it's kind of screaming for a Blade Runner-style adaptation where a moody book with great worldbuilding gets a more accessible story bolted on.

That Ain't Witchcraft (InCryptid)
a sturdy episode in the InCryptid series where we deal with the concept of the Crossroads, and hopefully the last one that is without Aeslin mice (although they are honored well). it feels like a bit of a bridge, but a fun bridge.

In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4)
this tells Lundy's backstory. better than Beneath the Sugar Sky! not quite as good as Down Among the Sticks and Bones. this one i think suffered from the short length and would have blossomed with another dozen pages.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
loved the worldbuilding and having an elderly genetically engineered heroine with practical tentacles, but it ended abruptly and awkwardly in a way that felt like it was an excerpt from a novel rather than a complete story. hmm. noting that this might be a bigger Tor.com problem.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
cozy SF story about life on board a ship where stuff is also happening in the galaxy sometimes. if you dig the crew interaction stuff from Firefly or The Orville, then this will be a pleasure. i had to try twice to get into it, but once i did it was like a warm bath.

The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)
i waited a long time to get this from the library, and it read slowly because a) it was due to timing and shared elements jumbled with Rebel of the Sands in my brain and b) it was the middlest middle book that ever middled. in the first book our heroine is a grifter discovering her heritage and there's this big political and religious thing happening and the end is a dramatic downer but you are primed to know how she's going to climb out of this hole. in the second book she's in the hole as is everyone else and while there's some excitement at the end it is, again, a dramatic downer.

The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient, #1)
this is a romance novel about an autistic woman who hires an escort to help her learn about sex and romance. it's got some internalized ableism and some ick around her early sexual experiences, but it was otherwise a joy to read from an allistic perspective and a fun twist on Pretty Woman. the author is on the spectrum and i appreciated her descriptions of texture and scent in general and especially in the sex scenes. (there are many sex scenes.)

An Argumentation of Historians (The Chronicles of St. Mary's #9)
i thought this series was over? but it's not? they are still hunting that one bad guy.

Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
Magic in Africa with colonialism and colorism and genocide. it's got a revolution and a quest with a ticking time clock and women finding their power. good times, looking forward to the next one.

Currently Reading
The Way of Kings: this has been sitting on my Kindle for years. i got it free at some point and had been warned that it was slow and i kept setting it aside. but i've also been told getting through this one is worth it to read the next ones. well, it's really slow.
right now i want to count all the times we've been shown that the one dude sucks the magic light out of the stones they use for money and then heals BUT NO ONE PUTS THIS TOGETHER INCLUDING HIM.

What's Next
library ebooks.

Recently Finished
The Riddle-Master. yeah, those books were not for me. at least i correctly guessed why our hero had his superpowers? has someone written fanfic in this universe? i feel like someone else doing something interesting in that world might be good. (just now i realized that it may have been an influence on Birthright. i should check, often the designers will credit their inspirations in the book somewhere.)

DNF: Woman on the Edge of Time. it started with violence against women of color and a forced abortion and i noped the fuck out of there. i know there's supposed to be some good spec fic beyond that point but no, not right now.

Clockwork Boys: D&D meets Suicide Squad featuring a forger, an assassin, a disgraced paladin, a cleric, and some scary stuff going on in the world. unfortunately it's really just half a book, so don't get it without its sequel. (i have that one out from the library but am still racing to finish expired books on the kindle.) i adored it.

Plain Kate: an orphan girl strikes a bad bargain with a witch and has to dig herself out (and save a bunch of lives in the process). it has nifty worldbuilding and a very special cat, kind of classic YA hero's journey stuff. trigger warning for violence against animals.

Cart and Cwidder: more classic YA, a growing into power story featuring magic music and the best horse. i enjoyed this but while the sibling dynamic was great the kids' relationship with their parents was profoundly odd and hard for me to believe; it's book one of a series but while i liked it okay it wasn't enough to seek out the rest. also has violence against animals.

Currently Reading
Jade City - duelling crime families in a Vietnamesque country where jade provides people (who are genetically able) with superpowers. think Mistborn (but with an element that doesn't get consumed) meets The Godfather.

What's Next
kindle library backlog! i'm getting more and more caught up.

i read Snowspelled yesterday (it's a novella). it has fun worldbuilding (fake regency england with elves, trolls, men doing magic and women doing government) with a smart and cranky heroine. it was light and charming and i enjoyed it.

but i couldn't love it.

i was sure the plot was going to resolve in a certain way, and i was there for the ride to said resolution. i was right about the mystery aspect, but not about the destiny of our heroine. the choice she made at the end felt out of character to me (even though on reflection i could see how it was supposed to have been set up in earlier scenes).

what happened?

i thought that i was reading a fantasy with romance elements, but actually i was reading a romance in a fantasy setting.* i expected the story to be about fulfilling the heroine's thirst for knowledge and adventure, but actually it was about fulfilling her need for belonging.

i've been trying to allow myself to read more romances; i like longing and love (and sex) in stories. but oh, the tropes and the formulas still aren't for me.




*when a book that's mentioned somewhere online piques my interest, i put it on hold at the library. due to my local libraries being well-loved, enough time has passed when i get the book that i often have no idea where the recommendation came from or why i thought it was something i should read.

Craxy Ex-Girlfriend Live wasn't perfect - we were one of the dates without the amazing Donna Lynne Champlin - but it was pretty freaking great. they were clearly having a blast and it was a grand mix of low-fi "we just threw this together" and polish. the Moore was sold out (the show had to be moved to a larger venue after the Neptune sold out in ~one hour). waiting in line for GA seats was literally painful due to a freak hailstorm, but we got my favorite spot in the orchestra - peak of the rake, center center. perfect sightlines, great sound mix. since it was during passover, there was even a point where a big box of matzoh got shared around the theater. at the time we saw them, they didn't know if the show would be renewed or not. the tour could have been the last time they all got to hang out...but the renewal notice came through the next day. they will have a fourth and final season, and i think that's pretty much perfect.

i know that i say this over and over again, but seriously: CxG is on Netflix. give it a try. it's the best musical comedy about life with mental illness that you've ever seen.

* * *

Dad is settled into a transitional rehab place, and is walking with a walker every day. i've talked with him on the phone a few times. the pauses are still long, but he sounds better every time we talk. Mom doesn't have anyone with her right now, which makes me sad*, but things are way less scary. my cousin who lives near the facility Dad is in has really stepped up and i don't know how to thank her enough.


* * *

i've been tearing through the Throne of Glass books now that my library holds list has kicked in. (i am probably digging it because the protagonist is basically a D&D character that i would play.) i haven't enjoyed a fat fantasy novel this much for a long time. it's definitely violent, but i can't call it grimdark.





* now the top of my lottery fantasy list is immediately flying to PA, which is not something i ever thought i would say.