spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
it only hurts when i breathe ([personal profile] spikedluv) wrote2025-06-04 07:27 am

Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 37-39 of 2025

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells, Out of the Deep I Cry (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells.


What I am Currently Reading: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie.


What I Plan to Read Next: I have three more library books out, and four more on request, so definitely one of those!!




Book 37 of 2025: Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

So good! spoilers )

So good! I'm trying not to read these all at once, but I'm already getting the final two books from the library, so it's going to be hard to hold back. I'm giving this book five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥



Book 38 of 2025: Out of the Deep I Cry (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) (Julia Spencer-Fleming)

I really enjoyed this book!!! spoilers )

Really good book. I've requested the next and am giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥




Book 39 of 2025: Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

So good! spoilers )

This book was really good. I'm giving it five hearts, natch.

♥♥♥♥♥
beanside: (Default)
beanside ([personal profile] beanside) wrote2025-06-04 06:01 am

Hiding from the light sacrificing nothingm still you call on me for entrance to the shrine

You may get nothing but Ghost lyrics between now and July. I'm trying to learn the words to the new songs, but it's coming slowly. But the music is super catchy so I'm sure I'll get there.

Ghost is weird. They bill themselves as Satanic metal, but and they have a few songs that bear that out, but most of their songs are more pop or hair metal. And despite the lead singer saying that the new album is "darker," I'm finding it really hopeful. And as I said, their music as a whole is very catchy. We've got 1 month to concert #1. I can't wait.

Day two post back scritches, and my lower back is still peeved. I dislike it. IT's not as bad as yesterday, but still cranky. We'll see if today is the kind of "work things out" cranky or the "get worse as the day goes on" pissed off.

I've got some good steaks to cook, so I'm hoping for the former.

Tomorrow is a quiet day--nothing much going on. Friday night after work, we need to drive down to get Jess' computer from best buy. Then we're going to go forth and get a late dinner. It's a fairly long drive, so we're best waiting til my sister gets home at 6 to go fetch.

I got a reminder on facebook that 8 years ago on this day, we went to see a wrestling PPV. It was fun, but nothing we felt the need to do again.

This weekend is pretty busy. I've got a haircut and we've got to pick up the computer Friday night, the appointment to drop off Mao for cremation after a decade at least, and then off to a work party at the bowling alley. I will probably not be bowling, owing to the bad back, but I will go and have snacks and visit with people.

Sunday is less busy, with just two games, one that I'm DMing and then one that [personal profile] poisontaster is.

I'm definitely going to be sleeping in on Sunday.

Oh, and *finally* we're closing on the house. No more albatross around our neck.

And on that note, I'm going to go consider the merits of pants. Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday!
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
it only hurts when i breathe ([personal profile] spikedluv) wrote2025-06-04 06:12 am
Entry tags:

The Day in Spikedluv (Tuesday, June 3)

I did zero shopping while I was downtown \o/, but still got in a short walk around the park. I did run to a local shop on my way home to get the meat sticks that Pip likes, and of course they were out of them. I got a yogurt parfait to try and was impressed to see that they used fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries). It was good, and filling.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, scooped kitty litter, and paid a bill online.

I finished Network Effect and started the next Duncan Kincaid book, and talked with mom. For my walk with the dogs, I went on a different trail, one that’s .50 mi instead of .25. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to add on a 1/4 mile each week. If so, by next week I’ll be doing a mile a day, which is good, considering. I also did some more writing, ~900 words on a brand new fic for [community profile] smallfandomfest. (If you guessed that it’s a Murder, She Wrote crossover, you’d be right. *g*)

We had leftover pulled pork (from Sunday’s b-day party) for supper, so another night I didn’t have to cook!

Temps started out at 39.9(F) (I know! I was o_O about it too!) and reached 84. It was very nice out, but still cool inside the house, so I wore a sweatshirt most of the day while iside.
suncani: figure made of boxes looking sad (sad)
suncani ([personal profile] suncani) wrote2025-06-04 09:53 am
Entry tags:

Cooking

 I've been struggling to find cooking appealing or fun much to my annoyance. However on Monday I had both the energy and the enthusiasm to make chicken and mushroom risotto from scratch for dinner. While the thought of cooking still feels more of a chore and less of a joy, i didn't hate it so I think I'm going to try and get the ingredients for a new recipe to cook at the weekend and see what happens.

I'm on the lookout for new recipes so recommendations for your favourite recipe or go-to when you're in a cooking slump would be appreciated. 
delphi: An illustrated crow kicks a little ball of snow with a contemplative expression. (Default)
Delphi (they/them) ([personal profile] delphi) wrote2025-06-03 12:27 pm

What I'm Reading: Wildwood by Colin Meloy (2011)

[personal profile] kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: YA/Children's

Wildwood is a 2011 children's novel by Colin Meloy, also known for his work as frontman for the Decemberists, with illustrations by Carson Ellis. It follows the adventures of two pretty much contemporary American children, Prue and Curtis, as they set off into the woods to rescue Prue's baby brother (who was carried off by crows) and discover a secret civilization of people and talking animals who have lived in the Impassable Wilderness for centuries and are now locked in a brewing war for control over it.

Things that would have made me love this when I was a kid:

• The world-within-a-world element. A magical society living just outside a regular city? Hell, yeah.
• Rich and vivid language, with an appealing narrative voice.
• Its worldbuilding (although I'm going to put a pin in this), which generally walks a nice line between whimsy and grit, with rules that establish themselves with a light touch.
• The length. This is a brick by children's book standards. It's well-paced and the sort of a thing that could keep a voracious reader busy all the way to their next trip to the library.
• Its sensibility about the independence of kid protagonists in the real world.
• The nomadic society of bandits and their king.
• The illustrations, particularly the full-colour inserts.

This didn't quite hit for me as an adult, but I'm glad I finally checked it out after years of meaning to.

I think the main thing that kept me from really loving it was wanting a little more interiority for the main characters. I get that the book is aiming for more of a fairy tale and Narnia vibe, but: 1) some of the characters' important choices really do hinge on personal decisions and relationships, and 2) this is a 540-page book. Fairy tales aren't built to run for 500+ pages, and it's longer than the first two Narnia books put together. I found myself craving more depth and emotional weight, especially as it went on.

For example... (Cut for Moderate Spoilers) )
Getting back to that asterisk next to the worldbuilding, I also found the story's decisions about diversity (or the relative lack thereof) occasionally distracting. I get it. Portland's pretty white, by design, and was even more so fifteen years ago. There are really only two characters from the real world and their direct relatives, and it wouldn't necessarily land well to be like, "All the characters of colour in this story are people lost in time, living in the woods."

But at the same time, among the predominantly 19th and 20th century settler-coded residents of the woods, you get these moments of groups with Indigenous coding who are either talking animals or white people—with the stereotypical two stripes of war paint and feathers in hair showing up in a picture of the latter. The text takes pains to characterize this group as Celtic, but that raises its own questions when a reference is made that seems to place them there before that territory's colonization, positioning a "since time immemorial" Irish population in the Oregon wilderness.

I often found myself looking at the aesthetics and thinking about those musical festivals full of severed pieces of Indigenous, Roma, and Celtic cosplay and felt like the fantasy here might be coming from a similar place.

The overall whiteness (and straightness, for that matter) of the book kept standing out because it's such a long story with such a huge cast. I did quite like large swathes of this book, but I think the length worked against it because the text kept offering more without necessarily offering more, if that makes sense.

This is the first book in a trilogy, and I have no idea if the subsequent books address or change any of this. I'm not racing to pick up the next one, but I might flip through it at the library sometime to see what it's like.

An Excerpt )
siria: (the pitt - mel smile)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-06-03 11:03 pm

2510 / ER, S15; The Maltese Falcon

Has anyone else been having issues trying to get access to AO3 over the last week or so? I repeatedly get SSL Handshake errors when I try to load a page or to post a fic, and it's very frustrating.

ER, Season 15 )

The Maltese Falcon )
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
silver_chipmunk ([personal profile] silver_chipmunk) wrote2025-06-03 10:13 pm

More preparation

Got up around 11:00 and had breakfast and coffee. Showered, washed my hair, and dressed.

Then I did various things in preparation for my trip. I took out the garbage, and walked around the block. I took out the recycling, and walked around the block. I cleaned the cat pan, and took out the dirty litter and walked around the block.

I waited for the purse I ordered to show up, as it was to be delivered today.

At 3:30 I checked in for my flight online, and printed out my boarding pass. I also emailed it to my computer and phone, for extra security. It was the first time I used the printer since setting Oldest Brother's ashes and pictures there.

RK had a job interview today, but was done by 2:30ish. He went home, and then came and got me at 5:00.

WE went to California Pizza Kitchen and I got us dinner, that's his thank you for taking care of my cat and turtle while I'm gone. It was delicious, I had the Wild Mushroom pizza with the white truffle oil. Yum.

I gave him my keys, and [personal profile] mashfanficchick's too, and kept the one I had copied for myself so I can lock up tomorrow when I leave.

When I got home my purse had been delivered, and it was almost time for my Al-anon meeting. I used the short time before to put the things from my purse that I want to bring in my computer bag. And then I had the meeting. It was very small, just me and M and S.

After the meeting I Teamed the FWiB. We talked for a little over an hour. After we were done, I took my Pathfinder book, my dice, and one of my Al-anon books and the new purse and fit them all in the duffle bag.

Then I fed the pets, and started here.

Oh, the turtle tank light was on when I got up this morning. So I assume I did in fact get the timer set up properly.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. RK.

3. Everything fit in my duffle bag.

4. Turtle tank light timer works.

5. Got checked in OK.

6. My new purse is just what I wanted for now.
lyssie: (can't talk now zombies)
lyssie ([personal profile] lyssie) wrote2025-06-03 07:48 pm

Miscellany (Narnia, Torchwood)

- I'm on a Narnia kick again, just as a warning. Part of that is telling everyone to go watch this vid, because it's amazing, and I've watched it like 8 times in the last two days: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41655432

- I've been re-watching the Walden films, and the commentary and BTS stuff, and really enjoying them. I disagree with various choices, but I do at least love the final product for the first two films. The third one is... ok. But really pales to the other two (unfortunately, but I don't know how they could rescue it).

- I listened to some of the Torchwood: Soho box sets, they are the gayest fucking thing ever, and the snark is perfect. A quick grouping of quotes (the best was Norton whining about wanting to kill more Nazis, I love this man, ok)

"No woman has ever had an idea that a man hasn't improved by repeating it louder." - Norton Folgate (being sarcastic, though somewhat honest given history)

"I saved her life, and she didn't give me a biscuit." - Lizbeth Hayhoe

"Alien invasions don't normally stop at the county border." - Andy Davidson

"You're a rebel."
"Oh my god, please tell my mum, she'll be well pleased." - Gideon & Andy

- Seriously, TW: Soho is so gay (Gideon is Norton's boyfriend/ex/boyfriend, Lizbeth corrupts Wrens [and is sad she's no longer with the war office to do so], Andy is Gideon's sugar daddy...); and so OTT, and the characters are complete assholes (except Andy, who is always having a very Trying Day). I cannot imagine them managing to get this as a tv series without toning people down, but I'd love them to make a go at it.

- I tried listening to the Last Centurion stuff they did for Rory, and unfortunately, it's not as gay as TW, and Arthur Darville sounds too American. I have most of the Amy & Rory era as sound files, and I used to listen to them constantly, so that tiny variation, which is probably sound quality or something put me off.

- Now if only BF would do another Torchwood One box set. I miss Yvonne. :/
siria: Joe and Nicky touching. (old guard - boys)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-06-03 08:25 am

2509 / Fic - The Old Guard

One Boyfriend, Free with Purchase
The Old Guard | Joe/Nicky | ~1400 words | For [personal profile] sheafrotherdon.

(Also on AO3)

Nicky goes out in search of a new mattress, and gets more than he bargained for. )
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
it only hurts when i breathe ([personal profile] spikedluv) wrote2025-06-03 07:17 am
Entry tags:

The Day in Spikedluv (Monday, June 2)

I hit Walmart and the Feed Bag while I was downtown and got in a short walk around the park. I stopped by the vet (to pick up Ti's special dog food) and the library (to return a book) on the way home. I got in another short walk with Pip and the puppers in the afternoon.

I did a load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher and ran another load, then emptied ~that load (I hate emptying the dishwasher, but I was on a roll!), did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, scooped kitty litter, and mowed the lawn.

I read more in Network Effect, watched an HGTV program, and talked to mom on the phone. Also, while I haven’t seen any fawns yet, Pip saw some deer running around frantically when he got close to the orchard to mow (so he left), which means there are probably more than one fawn hidden up there in the tall grass!

Pip had leftovers for supper (thanks to the BBQ chicken quarters, we had plenty, lol) so I didn’t have to cook. I made myself a ham sandwich. I’m not generally a fan of ham sandwiches, but they’re tasting really good to me lately.

Temps started out at 48.7(F) and reached 72.2. We had sun all day, with a slight breeze. I didn’t need a sweatshirt when I mowed, but I did retain my long-sleeved t-shirt. It was really a beautiful day.
beanside: (Default)
beanside ([personal profile] beanside) wrote2025-06-03 05:41 am

You put the boom-boom into my heart (whoo-hoo) you send my soul sky-high when your lovin' starts

IT's Tuesday and I have Regrets. I wet for the ASMR back scratching last night, and it was lovely. Relaxing and a little ticklish, but very good. (I need to get some of those little brushes, I loved them.). However, towards the end of my appointment, I noticed that my lower back was a little annoyed, and when I tried to get off the table, it turned out that it was SUPER pissed.

It's still angry today, and work is going to suck. I'll manage, but ouch.

We're officially closing on the house tomorrow, which is nice, I'll have to go over tonight to get a few more things, and then we'll be free!

There's really not a ton of stuff at this point, but I want to do a last run through and make sure I have everything. The most important thing is our documents. We need to grab the handful of stuff that's still relevant out of Dad's file cabinet. We're also picking up the frozen body of our dead cat, Mao. He died like 10 years ago, and we put him in there so we could cremate him when we could afford it. And somehow, we just never did. So now, we're going to do that. He deserves to be on our bookshelf o'ashes.

I'm not sure if I'm going to the farmers market today, we'll see how my back is feeling.

I did the post yesterday for the opening of CONfab's registration. It's virtual this year, held between Discord and zoom. It's a lot of fun, held between 10/17-10/19. If anyone is interested the registration link can be found here.. For more information about the con, you can check out the main website at https://confabcon.com/

Okay, time to go forth and take some fucking motrin. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)
AurumCalendula ([personal profile] aurumcalendula) wrote2025-06-03 12:18 am
Entry tags:

some recent reading

Ballad of Sword and Wine, Vol. 4 by Tang Jiu Qing (translated by XiA, Jia, and amixy):

Read more... )

Copper Script by KJ Charles:

Read more... )
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
silver_chipmunk ([personal profile] silver_chipmunk) wrote2025-06-02 10:18 pm

Trip preparation

Got up this morning around 11:30, had breakfast and coffee, then showered and dressed and went to pick up my laundry.

Again, it was light enough that I didn't bring the cart, and I just carried it home and put it in the bedroom. Then I put in a Shipt order.

Then while I was waiting for the order to come, I started packing for my trip. I used my duffle bag, as it's good for a carry on luggage and easy to carry. I packed all my clothes that I'm bringing. It won't be enough, I'll have to do laundry while I'm there, but [personal profile] mashfanficchick sings the praises of Dani's washer/dryer combo. Put the dirty clothes in, and they come out clean and dry.

So just when I was finishing up the clothing packing, the Shipt order came so I put that away, and then packed my meds.

Then I puttered around aimlessly, though I did do one important thing, I switched the remaining storage unit, of Oldest Brother's things, onto my credit card, and paid it for the month. Then I texted the Kid to discuss it. We will try to get it cleaned out by the end of this month. One way or another. Sadly there is little in there to save.

I emptied out the extraneous stuff from my computer bag, preparatory to using it as a purse on my trip.

I also ordered a belated birthday present for the Kid, two skeins of very nice yarn.

I spent most of the rest of the afternoon just puttering, though I did take time out to eat.

Then at 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB, or 7:15 to be more precise. We talked for about an hour and a half, and then I had dinner and went and lay down. Played solitaire and read, and at 10 it was pet feeding time.

I fed the pets, and then got out the timer I bought several years ago and attempted to set it up to control the turtle tank light. I think I did it wrong though because it should have turned off by now, and hasn't. I will investigate after I finish writing.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Clean laundry.

3. Packed to go.

4. My pets.

5. Nice warm day.

6. Shipt.

Edited to add: The light just turned off! I think I did it right!