I am going to abandon my LJ and stick to Dreamwidth. I won't crosspost and I'm certainly not going to be actively following LJ anymore- I still haven't decided whether I will actually delete my LJ. This is the final impetus for my final move ( Read more... )

We had our housewarming party last Friday night, which was properly celebratory. We feel in and settled now (although I do get occasional moments of wow, we own this place). Took Saturday off to recover and ended up pruning our embarassing front hedge on Sunday, it being a nice morning ( Read more... )

The more observant of you will have noticed that I haven't been posting reviews for the last couple of months. This is due to a couple of reasons:

1. my head kinda broke a bit-mostly reaction from stress. The workstress is pretty much over, but I'm still reacting to it, and the homestress is ongoing, although with a lower intensity level. As a ( Read more... )

This is due to RL overwhelming me somewhat, particularly today.

I did, however, read The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu earlier this month. I generally liked it, but doubt that I will reread it very often. It's very well written, but is about concepts more than people and as a reader, I am more interested in people. A conflict of taste ( Read more... )

I am late this month, thanks to organising a mini-gaming con, and also getting distracted into reading both Wolf Hall and Bringing Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel (the latter two occupied nearly a week of reading time each).

Still, after racking my brains for what I did read this month, I do have a review offering for you. And it's a good one!

( Read more... )

Title: Spirits Abroad
Author: Zen Cho
Copyright: 2014
Publisher: Buku Fixi
Obtained: e-book from Amazon
Reason for reviewing: short story collection by a Malaysian woman living in London, set in both London and Malaysia
Author website: ZenCho.org

Spirits Abroad is readily available in ebook from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Google Play, and ( Read more... )

Title: Lagoon
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Copyright: 2014
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Obtained: from tombola lot at Worldcon from either BSFA or a London SF group
Reasons for reviewing: science fiction written by an American of Nigerian descent, which is set in Nigeria
Author Website: Nnedi.Com-which looking at says she has won a number of fantasy ( Read more... )

The Background: I am going on trip to New Zealand imminently, and rather than pack many many hardcopy books, I am stocking up my kindle with things I want to read. I asked my friends on some social media for genre recommendations, noting that I had a particular interest in diversity, namely race or gender.

The Realisation: The majority of ( Read more... )

While I am thinking about gaming (and avoiding prepping for running Psi*Run), I thought I should probably write up some notes about our recently concluded game of PerfectPerfect is a game set in a dystopian, Victorian-inspired, society. You are criminals who are acting against the Man (who know that it will cost them) and it's about exploring the ( Read more... )

Back at Eastercon, eggwhite and I bought a number of books. I've slowly been reading my way through some of them and for the most part they were absolutely fine.

I have now read Sixty-Nine Nails and sequels by Mike Shevdon and they were engaging, even if the protagonist was utterly stupid and lacking in childcare abilities in the later books in a way ( Read more... )