What I read -- March 2019

“The Scar” by China Mieville. I started this before everything I finished in February because it was small enough to carry around and I own it so it’s okay if I drop it in a snowbank. CM is so baroque! I never really quite connected with Bellis (the main character), but it didn’t really matter. About 50 pages from the end I started to get nervous that the ending wasn’t going to be satisfying, but turns out, it was.
The mosquito people felt like they were that way for a reason other than to squick me out, compared to the grotesqueness in that Ian M. Banks book I read back in… November?

LHC #31: “Sideways Stories from Wayside School” by Louis Sachar. Must have been recommended by someone… It was cute.

LHC #32: “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” by Tom Bissell. I did have someone who played games constantly! It was maybe a phase. Now I think he wants to have a life. Games can be part of that. I probably added this to my list when games were still a problem in our house and am just getting to it now. It would be good if I got to things faster…

LHC #33: “Hammered” by Elizabeth Bear. This one had an actual wait! I waited like a month, even though it was the oldest thing on my holds list! I think the Toronto Public Library might only have one copy. I’ve read at least two complete series by EB, plus at least one other book (maybe two) so this is like the 8^th or 9^th book by her I’ve read.
She was an instructor at VP when I was there (probably still is) and spoke well of my boots.
Because of Persephone, I took note of how she used French. It’s different than I’ll do it I think.

What I read: September 2025

LHC #295: "The Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. Audiobook. Workplace horror? Loved it. "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Hard copy, for office Data Ethics book club. The stories about Sheryl Sandberg really made me like my boss better. LHC #296: "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. This got moved up the list because Ed had read book 1 in the series and got the rest out of the library. Loved it. He's got the next one in the series upstairs, I suppose I'll read it when he's done. LHC #297: "Bluegrass: A History" by Neil V. Rosenberg. Hard copy. No idea why it was on my list, I don't care that much about bluegrass. Nevertheless, the second half was interesting. I guess the first half was necessary, as it described in great length the way people came and went in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band, and also how technology and social pressures affect how music is made and performed. LHC #298: ...

What I read -- October 2025

"The Moomins and the Great Flood" by Tove Jansson. eBook. I read this because Marissa Lingen loves them. It was fine? This was the first one in the series and the only one available online; maybe the later ones are better. Maybe they're better if you read them as a child. "The Relentless Moon" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. It took a long time to get going, and sometimes I find MRK exhausting. Her white main characters all seem oddly aware of the Black experience. "The Martian Contingency" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. I don't often read subsequent books in a series in quick succession, and my reaction to this one is a lot of why: I found Alma's voice too similar to Nicole's -- sure, Nicole obsessed about food much more, but they both went on and on about "must support black guy in management" an...

In progress - January 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing Persephone (probably not its real name): NOthing Vinterlys: Worked on Chapter 2 some more. Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Georgia (Norah Gaughan). Started the month with one sleeve and half a front to go. Finished. Love this sweater. Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Did a few rows while listening to podcasts. Summer in Tokyo (Isager): Started. I was looking at the pictures and the charts, and the pattern as written is not what is in the pictures! So odd. I am going to finish up two cones of yarn with this project! Pretty exciting. I hope I don't run out of light blue. I was working along on it, and if you go and look at the sweater, it's knit bottom-up, and I was at the part where I only had two colors, about 5" maybe. And I was thinking, "wow, this is pretty ugly! Maybe I should stop...

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