Reading

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wednesday reads and things

What I've recently finished reading:

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom, the 6th Shardlake novel. This is all about the heresy hunts in the last few years before Henry VIII's death - one faction wanted to go back towards Catholicism, one wanted a radical re-imagining of religion and social structures, and if you wanted to stay in the regime's good graces, you walked the narrow path of "the King is the divinely ordained leader of the Church, and whatever he says goes." Warning for historical burning of heretics, plus canon-typical violence; also for weird religion and contentious legal cases. Matthew Shardlake still has a crush on the queen (Katherine Parr).

What I'm reading now:

My hold on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons came in, so that. Just barely started.

What I recently finished watching:

American Primeval, which, huh, I've never before encountered media in which the Mormons are the bad guys. (This is not a spoiler. It's pretty clear from the get-go, but it gets more pointed and cartoon-villainy toward the end.) Definitely violent and gory, though also it felt very clearly written to Tug The Heart Strings (and then, often, deliberately kill the character it's just tried to make you care about) at which at least for me it failed to do. I liked Abish, Two Moons, and Captain Edwin Dellinger, and James Bridger amused the hell out of me, but - I mostly enjoyed it, but I don't feel it was superlative. I got tired of the filter to wash out colors so it looked almost old-photo sepia.

I did enjoy the historical setting of the Mormon War; as I mentioned last time, I researched it for my Yuletide story, and I think it's just an interesting time, the settlement/colonization of western North America.

What I'm about to start watching:

Murderbot! We always wait until enough episodes are out that we can watch ~every other day and not have to wait.

What I'm playing now:

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, which was recommended to me as a "spooky atmospheric puzzle game", and I'm enjoying it a lot. You play as a mysterious woman who has come to a mysterious hotel full of locked doors in what might be Germany in 1963, at the request of a mysterious man for reasons of ??? I told my brother about it because it's cheap in the summer sale at Steam, and he decided it sounded good so he is playing it now, a bit behind my progress but because of the nonlinearity he's ahead of me in some things. We're trying to give each other elliptical hints when needed.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: back home

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Been away, came back.

Hmmm. And it's been a year since I posted, it seems. There *was* six months of chaos following the flood last year, of course. Mostly sorted (two new shelving units, lots of unpacking, packing, re-unpacking, lather-rinse-repeat) & I still have 3 tubs of what S & N packed for me stacked in the bedroom, & still haven't got rid of my archery equipment.

Various other things have happened - I went to stay with

lexin in December, & had a reasonable holiday, as usual, though I seemed to have gone almost completely deaf in my right ear just beforehand, which was ... interesting ... and has led to me getting hearing aids this year!

I went to the filk con in February, a friend died in May & I went to her funeral in early June; and I've just (on Monday) got back from another lovely 2-week stay with

lexin in Bangor, where we had numerous outings!

( List of the out and abouts )

Week one, done!

( Week Two )

I came home on Monday with a slight sense of dread, but nothing seems to have disastered this time. Tomorrow morning I have someone coming on behalf of the council to do a 'condition survey', which I do have a slight feeling of dread about, as they may be recommending a new bathroom, which I shall fight because if they do I'll probably lose my washing lines.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

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The Seventh of the Recced Book Reviews: The Lost Flock

On May 8th, I offered to read the first five books people recced - assuming they were available (preferably from the library) - and I'd give a short review [https://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/701769.html].

This is the seventh recced book review.

It's been a long time since posting one of these (I had non-recced books to read!), but I just finished:

The Lost Flock (2023), by Jane Cooper (recced by marinarusalka on dreamwidth)

When this was recced to me, marinarusalka wrote, “I’m curious to see if a non-knitter will find it equally interesting.” Because here’s the thing. I know nothing about raising sheep, I’ve never knitted, I’ve never been to the Orkney Islands, and yet this is why I loved reading The Lost Flock. It’s the same reason I like reading science fiction and fantasy; learning about and getting immersed in a world you know nothing about is great.

So…if you want to know about Boreray sheep (a rare, primitive short-tailed breed) or how felting is done or how to spin without a wheel or about sails for Viking ships, this is your book.

I saw below me the golden valley... I think is part of it?

Various:

--I keep not posting because I feel like I'd have to post about reality, which is full of plumbing-house-ceiling-reconstruction disaster, dragged out over months, but it's still happening and I'm still full of despair and I'm tired of thinking about it, so I have decided instead to post about literally anything else.

--My mother's friend's teen grandchild is maybe coming out as trans but maybe not sure yet. The grandmother is determined to support her grandchild (yay) but both she and my mother are squarely in the zone of 'you mean well but you are boomers who live in central Texas and are therefore clueless AF.' (My mother apparently listened to her friend tell her about the situation and then, trying to come up with something positive, said, "Well, you just tell him he always does a great job with the weeding, so he's a good kid.")

If anyone has links to personal recommendations or personally-endorsed resources for 'how do I support my trans grandchild in a red state when I know nothing?' I would love to be able to pass something on.

--Work is full of meetings about AI products, which is almost as annoying as home contractors but marginally less so. Because I am paid to be at work listening to people say ignorant things about em dashes — which you can pry from my cold, dead hands — as opposed to at home where no one is commenting on my punctuation but the money is flowing the other way.

--Last night we went to the Harvard Science Museums' Midsummer celebration, during which I made myself a flower crown and lived my best hippie child/forest nymph life. I have always secretly loved the forest nymph aesthetic but I'm too lazy and awkward to pull it off for more than an hour-ish in reality, so it was very pleasing to have A tell me how charming I looked. (I mean, she tells me this all the time, but still.)

While there listening to the family-friendly music, with mild sadness I realized that I've forgotten all the verses of "This Land is Your Land." I may need to go memorize those again, as I once knew them all by heart.

--Twice this week we have been able to sit outside in the shade reading for long periods of time and it's been so incredibly nice. Today after a while I spread out the picnic blanket and actually napped on the grass. I have no idea how long this time of year will last so I'm determined to make the most of it.

--There's gonna be a new Spaceballs movie and this news is a shaft of delight in a dark world.