What I read: November 2025

"Katabasis" by R.F. Kuang. Hard copy, gift from the boy. Dark academia, and when I read the first chapter I was like "A walk into hell, how is she going to sustain that for 500+ pages?" but it was fine. Loved it. It seemed like a couple of times a metaphor was reused or a phrase repeated on the same page, not sure if that was intentional? It lost its way for a while, I thought, about 80% in, but it ended really well.

"Finding Me" by Viola Davis. eBook. For office book club. She sure doesn't like Portuguese people. Reminded me of my dad that way. I didn't expect all the urine. I might not have been the right audience for this as I've never seen anything she's in, but the part where she was complaining about how hard telemarketing is, I was wondering if anyone was the right audience.

LHC #300: "A Thousand Recipes for Revenge" by Beth Cato. Hard copy. I sort of wished the story could have worked without having to go all "fairyland exists" and then "children of gods" but it was good nevertheless. And I guess that's where she was always going so whatever. Not the book I would have written maybe, but I put the sequel on my list.

LHC #301: "Shielded: How the Police became Untouchable" by Joanna C. Schwartz. Hard copy. Really interesting read from just a couple of years ago, definitely not anti-cop, but about how the court system has perpetuated some really bad shit that might be more about our values as a society than we really want to admit. And now that there is ICE as well, maybe the system needs to rethink some things.

LHC #302: "The World Wasn't Ready for You: Stories" by Justin C. Key. eBook. These were good.

LHC" #303: "The Black Tulip" by Alexandre Dumas. Audiobook while I drove from Windsor and back. I feel like I read a detailed synopsis of this before. Definitely a portrait of someone who is supremely neuroatypical. Who else could obsess about tulips for so long?

Moraine

So a couple of days I thought I was done with this short story, and I wrote the last line of the story. I even dated it (that's how I can tell it's over). It was a little long, at 6600 words (I was aiming for 5000). But then I was walking to work, and I thought, "My, that was a lame ending. My endings are all crap." So yesterday morning, I scribbled out the date and wrote a bit more. And this morning I wrote a bit more again, and I dated it and called it done. And still, that ending seemed lame. So a few minutes later, in the last paragraph, I scratched out "the Oak Ridges Moraine" and wrote in "that stupid moraine". Much better. Now I can move on. But in the meantime, I was doing a little research about the Moraine, and I discovered that EGTourGuide lives on it. Only by one or two hundred feet, but I thought it was funny. Good for you, EGTourGuide, with all those excellent plants growing on that substandard soil, where in the olden days (you kno...

In progress: August 2024

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Still n eed to take up comments and revise. Persephone (probably not its real name): Continued to think thoughts. Short Stories: After posting that short story from last month onto the workshop, I picked one of those short stories I'd started and forced a plot onto it. Critted 5 Got back 4 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Cathar (self). Started month with two inches done above the armholes. Listening to audiobooks, I finished the fair isle portion, cut the steeks, and set up and knit the neckline. Just the endless finishing now. Blushing Cloud (Knitty S/S24). Started the month with (still) three inches of back done. Socks take priority. Elbrus socks (Knitty first fall 2024). Finished. Elbrus socks II . Started the first. Pole shorts (Joan McGowan-Michael). I knitted these several years ago, but the...

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: ...

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