Skip to main content

What I read - January 2026

Explanation: I have a very long Holds list at the library, so I'm trying to whittle that down. It's an impossible task, as I keep adding things. However, Two years ago my library was hacked and the website was down for like 4 or 5 months. So, I've got some breathing room because I couldn't place holds between October 2023 and March 2024, and books expire off the holds list after 2 years (by default. So, I don't have any holds that are expiring between now and March, and I'm using this "free" time to read all the things that have very few copies available in the system (having been burned before by there only being one copy, and it going missing). And, when that's done, I'm trying to read the sequels that are on the list, before I've forgotten what I liked about the series. 

"The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore. Hard copy. Office book club selection. I was #455 on the waitlist and yet got the book within a week. And it didn't take a week to read, either. I spent a lot of time thinking about who the bad guy is. Alice? She had the least satisfying resolution definitely. What, are you all just going to let her go along drugging herself and not remembering all the bad things she did? 

"World of Wonders" by Robertson Davies. Hard copy. Good for travelling as it was small, also a sequel, so now I've finished the series. Go me! This was a shockingly dense, slow read, but maybe that's just compared to the previous book which took like 45 seconds per page. 

LHC #309: "The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry. Hard copy. Only 2 copies in the TPL. It was really well plotted but I didn't connect much with the main character. 

LHC #310: "Assassin of Reality" by  by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko. Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey. eBook. Sequel to Vita Nostra, which I read back in March of 2024, so I guess I'm on schedule for this one, 22 months later? I remember the verbs in the first one driving me crazy, and this one too. Makes sense somehow, considering the themes. I put the final volume on my list. 

LHC #311: "The Sun, the moon, and the stars" by Steven Brust. Hard copy. Only 2 copies in the TPL. I realized about 3 chapters in that the sections were named after famous paintings, so I did what any normal person would do and started googling them and taking a look as I read the chapter. Like, what was he going for with that choice? Hmmmph. And then I realized, this book was published in 1987. People who read this when it came out couldn't do that. Did they get to know these paintings? 

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Read more

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...
Read more

Word of the day: Wendigo

I first encountered this word a few weeks ago on Leah Bobet's blog , but I skipped over and paid it no nevermind. Anyway, it caught my eye again today when I was reading a short story . So I googled it. In November, I did like an hour of research of first-nations (specifically ojicree ) mythology when I was writing the zombie karate novel. How did I not find this? How did I not learn about wendigos (wendigoes?) when I was learning mythology in high school English? And manitous? One of my friends goes to Camp Manitou every summer. How did I not know? Was I asleep? Is this proof of my ADD which no one else agrees I have? What? I'm not needing to culturally appropriate or anything, but it would have been cool to know. Also, this is awesome: http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.fan.heinlein/msg/0920b2f01ac0a248?hl=en . Not sure I ever finished a Heinlein novel. I know I didn't finish "The number of the beast" on account of I found it totally sexist. When I was 15.
Read more