Erm. Went out for drinks with friends, so this may be a bit discombobulated.

Currently reading: Yay, League of Dragons! I'm so excited, especially since
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... except for the fact that, because I had jury duty this week (happily we were dismissed today, yay!), I have no links to post. Other than...

this awesomely ridiculous New Yorker parody.

And the Hamilcake. So cute!

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Recent reading:

Just Finished: Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Still could have done without the Catholic-bashing, but at ( Read more... )

Woah. Big night in US politics. Wish my mom were alive to see it.

This piece by Ezra Klein on Hillary Clinton's abilities as a politician reminds me of that epic MetaFilter thread about emotional labor. Because basically, that's what he's saying: she makes up for her lack of natural charisma & "masculine" leadership with emotional labor. She ( Read more... )

So B&N published this list of 15 space operas to get you over Firefly (although, ew, Ringworld). Huh.

I stumbled across a discussion of Firefly on File770, and in reading the conversation, I realized something. I've always said that Babylon 5 was great storytelling with terrible dialog; I wonder if I can say that the inverse is true of Firefly ( Read more... )

Holy crap, this is fascinating: how to make sugar into caramel without melting it, and use it for baking. And it has a lower glycemic index! Weird. So I tried it last night--made 4 lbs of "caramel sugar", and then made oatmeal-ginger cookie dough tonight. We shall discover tomorrow what the results are ( Read more... )

Dude. Two people I have personally met won awards at the Nebulas tonight.

Congratulations to Naomi Novik for winning the Nebula for best novel for Uprooted!

And congratulations to Fran Wilde for winning the Andre Norton award for YA for Updraft! It's her first novel! Woah.

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The science behind how awesome running is. Now if only my vertigo ( Read more... )

Hey, it's Wednesday!

Just finished: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge, for book club. That was actually really interesting: it's a novel published in 1929 (won the Pulitzer in 1930) written from the POV of two Navajo characters, about life on the Navajo Nation in 1915. The writer was a Harvard-educated anthropologist who spoke a little of the ( Read more... )

I was going to post an update, but ... argh. No.

Current reading: Anyway, I'm reading Jemisin's The Fifth Season, and y'all were right: it's really, really good. Also, why did nobody point out that many of the characters are basically Earthbenders?

Just finished: Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, which was the happiest ending of any ( Read more... )

Currently reading: Erm, Knight's Fee by Rosemary Sutcliff. Just as rich in physical detail as her other work, if no better about women than any of the other novels. Surprisingly, it has an intense friendship between two young men! ::grins::

Just finished: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which I never read in high school (I know!). Vivid and ( Read more... )

It's been a hell of a week (moved Dad into memory care, sigh), but the worst appears to be over, so I can maybe post.

Currently reading: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, for book club. Which I am kinda liking and kinda not. It does hit one of my major squicks, but the writing is very good and the characters engaging, so. I guess we'll see.

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