What I read: June 2023

Late last summer, property management folks uprooted Deathless while installing a heatpump in my townhouse. They left him lying on the lawn. Without much hope, I trimmed his limbs and replanted him hours later, a meter from the heatpump. This spring I was excited to see buds, then leaves.

LHC #213: "Deep Secret" by Diana Wynne Jones. I read the first chapter and was dubious, but then I got on a roll and it was a delight. Weirdly fat-phobic, not sure what to make of that.

LHC #214: "It's complicated: the social lives of networked teens" by Danah Boyd. I started off kind of jaded. What, these kids are requesting a video camera from their school? How 2001! Somehow Deep Secret seemed more modern to me. it predates Covid, DJT and Tiktok, things I think have shaped current socials. But I persevered, and this book was really good. I incredibly relate with DB's perspective on youth. More people should read this book.

But then, I love teenagers. So I would say that.

"When women were dragons" by Kelly Barnhill. I got this for Christmas. I got three copies, so my sister took one, and she read it a couple of months ago. Half-way through, she was loving it. Then she got to the last quarter, and she said it kind of fell apart. Boy, was she right. About 100 pages from the end, I was worrying that I was going to get really angry because the dragons were coming back (spoiler, sorry) and they were going to have no comeuppance, but instead the dragons came back and it was a bit of a slog. Also, I kept hoping she'd go back to the knots, but she never did.

LHC #215: "The secret to superhuman strength" by Alison Bechdel. Graphic anything feels like cheating, but if I was opposed to cheating I'd have come up with a rule about novellas. I felt pretty seen by this book.

Best TW feedback ever

Over at the dayjob, SMEs are feverishly trying to get documents back to me all marked up, in preparation for the release that's supposed to happen the week I'm back from VP. Today's best comment: Unfortunately not true. SMEs, they're so cute.

What I read: August 2023

"The Absolute Book" by Elizabeth Knox. I got it for Christmas. It was delightful, even if maybe some stuff wasn't explained completely. Or maybe that's part of why it was delightful. "Crucial conversations" By Joseph Grenny and three other old white men. Another office book club selection. The word "candor" comes up a lot. I really resented this book. LHC #220: "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt. There was a girl at my previous company who wanted to have an office book club, and she had this book on her desk for months and months. I can totally understand this. I found portions crazy stressful to read. Like, I would be skipping ahead to see how much more in the section, could I get through it, pacing around, etc. I wanted to know how it ended, sure, but I was having weird stress dreams and stuff. If it wasn't a library book I might not have finished it at all. It was such a relief when Boris showed up again and something happened. I di

In Progress -- July 2023

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Still n eed to take up comments and revise. Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing but thoughts. Short Stories: As I mentioned last month I had a dish-washing epiphany on a story that wasn't going well. I'd already changed the POV character, but I knew that wasn't enough because I had no ending. It has an ending now. Critted 4 Got back 0 I really need to post something new. Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 1 Knitting Tay Tartan cardigan (Martin Storey). Finally finished the danglers and minor seaming and chose buttons, then had to wait to block because the space I normally block in needed to be cleared, and this would be very disruptive to my work, so I waited to block it for the night before I went on vacation. It would appear that the finishing of this sweater took 4 months, which may be a new record. It fits for the most part. Yay! Cathar (self). Started the month just about done with the body edging.

Robynettely

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