What I read -- July 2018

LHC#13: “Sorcerer to the Crown” by Zen Cho. It took me until about half-way through to connect with the characters. After that I quite enjoyed it.

“Cold Magic” by Kate Elliott. Ed was doing a re-read, so I picked it up. I guess I’m reading the series now… spoilers: Cat gets force-married on p. 80 and by page 150 is starting to like her random forced husband. Ick. But that wasn’t the direction things were going and it was a fun read.

“Cold Fire” by Kate Elliott. All three volumes of this series were around the house, and they’re library books so that wasn’t going to last, so here we are. I spent a lot of time wanting to slap the characters here. At least Cat has agency and the freedom to make bad sexual choices.

The situation didn’t change really for like 200 pages after Cat got to Expedition. It made me wish I was a faster reader (I don’t often wish this). It probably didn’t help that I read this section while sitting waiting a very long time for my number to be called at a government office.

I was thinking about why it rubbed me the wrong way so much and sort of realized that what she was doing with the relationship there is something I’m trying to do with a relationship that I’m writing (though with very different characters). So it made me think about what did and didn’t work for me and why. I felt like not only was Cat being really annoying, she was really unclear about her motivations.

But! I was at circus and I said something about wanting to make yam pudding. I don’t know why this came up. And it led to an interesting conversation with someone about KE, and Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman, and Diana Wynne Jones. It’s neat to find like-minded people.

“Cold Steel” by Kate Elliott. If it hadn't been a library book with an ambiguous due date, I might have put it down in the Lutetia section and just... never picked it up again. I was so glad when Cat finally left the mage house there. I didn't find the Mansa particularly convincing towards the end of the book.

But it did have a satisfying resolution. I liked where the characters ended up. And the yam pudding was very good.

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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