Robynettely

LHC #278: "Semiosis" by Sue Burke. eBook. More like linked short stories than a novel really. Some of the characters and voices were distasteful but the aliens and worldbuilding were amazing. And the one about first contact with the glassmakers was laugh out loud funny.  LHC #279: "Carry On" by Rainbow Rowell. Hard copy because there was a 6-month waitlist for the eBook but I could have the hard copy within the week. Harry Potter fanfic? I found it kind of tedious until Baz showed up, and then it was great. If there are teams, I'm definitely team Baz.  LHC #280: "Lunch: A history" by Megan Elias.  Hard copy. I didn't expect to ever read this one actually. The library had got down to one copy of it, and it was listed as lost, and I'd left this on my list in Active status for like five months, when one day it started winging its way towards me. I found it strangely organized and mostly comprising of many, many menus. There didn't seem to be ...

Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing. Persephone  (probably not its real name): Nothing.  Short Stories:  Eventually abandoned that thing from the backlog. Also wrote a short thing from scratch on scrap paper, but I don't think it's good.  Vinterlys:  I'm going to finish Chapter 1 and post it, then mark all the chapters, make an outline, and I hope I can post a chapter every two weeks until it's done.  Critted  4  Got back  1 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Hamilton  (Self). Started the month with about six rows of the colorwork on the second sleeve. Did not work on it. Sulaire  (Alice Starmore). Did one side of button bands. So close to done! So not wearable until September!  Ruffled sock  (self). Started the month with just the ruffle done on the second sock. Finished it. Viking hat (Self). I needed something for a costume, so I found some silver yarn in a tr...

In the order I finished them, rather than the order I started:  LHC #274: The Blighted Stars by Megan O'Keefe.  Hard copy. Read it mostly on the plane to and from Vancouver. I liked it more than I thought I would and put book 2 on my list. As usual I have no idea why it was on my list, and I found the characters a bit stock, but the plot moved right along and the science and worldbuilding were cool.  LHC #275: "Wings once cursed and bound" by Piper J. Drake. ebook. I found the writing kind of simplistic maybe? Once again, really predictable characters, and it seemed a little bit like it was introducing a new species of supernatural creature whenever the plot flagged, but whatever.  LHC #276: "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell. Hard copy. After the last book, this one was a delight from page one, though it got quite depressing later on. I can see why it's a classic. I did not find these characters predictable, but maybe that's because I know nothing ab...

That's Willow right there. On the left, the remains of the ball of yarn I used. On the right, the size of ball I started with.  Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): Nothing.  Short Stories:  Kept working on that thing from the backlog.  Critted  4  Got back  0 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Hamilton  (Self). Started the month with the colorwork on the second sleeve just started. Did about 5 rows.  Sulaire  (Alice Starmore). Finished the second sleeve and the neck. This will be completed in May!  Willow  (Joan Ho). Finished the second sleeve and the finishing, which was minimal.  Ruffled sock (self). Started the month with just the ruffle done on the first sock. Finished that and started the second.  Sashiko project:  Nothing.   Ruffle skirt: Nothing . Purple Romper:  Nothing.. ...

Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): Nothing.  Short Stories:  Kept working on that thing from the backlog.  Critted  5  Got back  2 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Hamilton  (Self). Started the month with maybe 20 more rows to be done with that first sleeve. Finished that sleeve, started the next. I've just barely started the colorwork.  Sulaire  (Alice Starmore). Started the month on the first sleeve. Finished that sleeve, started the next. I've just barely started the cap.  Willow  (Joan Ho). Started the month on the first sleeve. Finished that, started the next. I have maybe 9 inches, eight to go?  Ruffled sock  (self). Did the ruffle. I needed something portable for travelling.  The stars continue lining up: I'm on the second sleeve of every project.  Sashiko project:  Nothing.  Ruffl...

 LHC #271: "Chlorine" by Jade Song.  Hard copy. This was fun. Certainly there were off-putting parts but I quite enjoyed it. It was a little stressful at times. I was describing it to Ed, who was a competitive swimmer, and he googled the author and scoffed because she was a college athlete. I mocked him for that.  LHC #272: "An Act of Oblivion" by Robert Harris. Audio book because I needed something to listen to while I worked on some tedious knitting tasks. Historical fiction, which is not my normal genre. This was recommended to me by someone who's read large portions of Wind/Water/Salt, and I would say my puritans are not nearly insufferable enough.  "One Message Remains" by Premee Mohamed. Hard copy. After reading an excerpt on the Chuck Wendig website, I wanted to read the rest (normally I don't read excerpts because then if I read the story later I'm confused, but something sucked me in), so when I saw she was going to talk at the Merril...

LHC #286:  "The Best of R. A. Lafferty".  Hard copy, because there are only two copies in the system and no e-copies, and I don't want the thing to happen anymore where I have books on my list that I never get to read because the one copy in circulation disappears.  Short stories, and as such some worked better for me than others. Stylistically very different than what I'm used to.  LHC #287:  "The Dervish House" by Ian McDonald.  Hard copy for the same reason as above. Challenging, worth the effort. I kept feeling like other things I've read are in conversation with this, and I never knew what the conversation was about until now.  LHC #288:  "My Heart is a Chainsaw" by Stephen Graham Jones. eBook. I was nervous because I haven't seen that many horror movies, but that turned out not to be an issue. There were two characters, Holmes and Hardy, and one scene they were both in where I didn't notice that the second one was there for like s...

  Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): Nothing.  Short Stories:  Finished a story, posted it on the workshop. Pulled another one out of the backlog.  Critted  4  Got back  3 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Hamilton  (Self). Started the month with maybe 30 more rows to be done with that first sleeve. I will always be knitting this sleeve.  Sulaire  (Alice Starmore). Started the month with 10cm done of the front. Finished that, now I'm on the first sleeve.  Willow  (Joan Ho). Started the month almost to the armholes. Finished the back and front, did the shoulders, did the neck, started the first sleeve.  It's like the stars lining up: I'm on the first sleeve of every project.  Sashiko project:  Nothing.  Ruffle skirt:  Nothing.  Purple Romper:  Nothing. 

  Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   nothing.   Persephone  (probably not its real name): nothing.  Short Stories:  While reading reviews in Locus, I realized how to fix the lack of personality in the MC of the story I was working on, which is weird, because the solution had nothing to do with the reviews I was reading.  Critted  4  Got back  0 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Hamilton  (Self). Started the month with a sleeve that was about 6 inches long, and of course the body to the armholes. Ended the month with maybe 30 more rows to be done with that first sleeve..  Sulaire  (Alice Starmore). Started the month with five inches of body plus peplum. I got to the armholes and did the right and left backs and continued the front.   Willow (Joan Ho). Felt like starting something and this was next up. I got the book (Cable Knit Style) for Christmas and have 3 g...

 LHC #282: "Nona the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir. Audio book. I love these so much. That said, I spent far too much time on the Locked Tomb wiki trying to figure out what was going on.  LHC #283: "The edge of the plain : how borders make and break our world" by James Crawford. Hard copy, and sadly not because I'm trying to read less books on Overdrive and more in hard copy, but because it's the only format they had available. This book was what I wanted it to be. A rare case where I actually remember where I heard about it: it was  Marissa Lingen .  At first it struck me as odd that this book about borders has no maps. I googled. It was no problem. Which led me to believe this was a choice, probably kept production costs down, and also I can get better maps on line with more detail and higher resolution than they could print anyway.  LHC #284: "The Monsters we Defy" by Leslye Penelope. Hard copy for the same reason as above. It's a heist set in 1920...

LHC #279: "Infomocracy" by Malka Older. I'd been waiting for this one on Overdrive, and then it popped available just as I'd started "No Gods for Drowning", but I accepted it and didn't start it. Then I had a several-hours drive and the audio book was available so I took that too. So I started with the audio book and listened to about 4 hours. I was somewhat confused. I started with hearing the word sentinel, when actually they were saying centenal and didn't realize for a couple of hours. Sometimes I couldn't really tell when it was the character speaking and when it was narration or exposition or whatever. The head-hopping didn't really help either. When I got home from the drive I listened and watched the words a little bit at the same time and things started making more sense.  One of the characters has "Narrative disorder" which I was pretty sure was made up, so I googled. Unfortunately the google AI gave me a fine description ...

Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): I think I figured out the ending.  Short Stories: Wrote a new one, on paper. Typed it up. Edited it some. Probably made it worse.  Critted  4  Got back  0 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Blushing Cloud  (Knitty S/S24). Started the month with 14 inches of back done. I finished that, cast off the back, seamed the sleeves, and started the edging. I knew I was going to run out of yarn so at that point I just switched from green to pink. It's finished now.  Hamilton  (Self). Started the month having just started the first sleeve. Now that sleeve is 6 inches long.  Seamless seam socks  (Knitpicks Pop Socks). Started the month almost done with the second.  Finished that one, started the next. This is the second pair, the last pair for Christmas. And they are done. Maybe I'll knit some soc...