smilebackwards

Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. Enjoyed this! The way it's told by an unknown narrator isn't my favorite structure but all the characters and their intersections were interesting. Good cultural worldbuilding as expected from Ann Leckie.

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In TV, I finished CBS Ghosts season 5. Fun, silly sitcom which is ideal for watching on my lunch break. I have to say it was insane that one of the episodes was about the house potentially being torn down to get replaced with a data center and then one of the mid-ep commercials was some PR attempt at reputation repair for data centers that was all 'data centers create jobs!' 'data centers aren't making your energy bills more expensive!'. Like, sure, dude.

Also watched Man on the Inside (seasons 1 & 2). Ily Ted Danson.

And many random movies:
-The Half of It. Sweet, gay, coming of age movie. Most highly recommended of this lot.
-Send Help. Not great but I respect it for being unhinged.
-GOAT, The Sheep Detectives, Remarkably Bright Creatures. Formulaic, feel-good movies with creatures.
-In The Grey. Insanely flat Guy Ritchie action film. Either the most extremely queerbaiting movie I've seen in a long time or Sid and Bronco were actually married.

Props to this recent phase of fun books that are making me stop doomscrolling and instead read like 200+ pages a day.

Platform Decay by Martha Wells. ( not really spoilers but if you're someone who doesn't even read the blurb which is sometimes me )

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Latest album I'm enjoying. This Is...Icona Pop. Discovered by the I Love It single but the whole thing slaps IMO.

Watch on YouTube

A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman. 1,100 pages?? Sure, I will read that in 3 days. I've been in place #1 on the holds for this book at the library since it was announced but they usually, understandably, take like a week or two to get and library bind new books and put them in circulation so I was checking digital availability on release day and was able to get a copy from Libby. So I downloaded that new app and my ongoing quest to understand the difference between Libby, Kindle, and Hoopla continues. Is Overdrive still a thing? Why so many eBook platforms? Anyway, book received and I enjoyed my time with Carl and Princess Donut and Prepotente and the rest of the squad!

The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck. This was apparently written as WWII era propaganda for nations that had been invaded by Germany and they translated and secretly printed copies. It's about a fictional town under occupation and how the people clandestinely fight back--escaping, slowing work, general everyday hostility, dynamiting railroad tracks, not giving up, etc. Honestly some of it feels relevant to today with regards to capitalism and the current rise of fascism.

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Mostly I've been catching up on some classic movies I never watched. Memento, The Hurt Locker, Lawrence of Arabia, My Own Private Idaho, Everything Everywhere All at Once. EEAAO was fun and did make me cry over the fucking rocks and the mother/daughter relationship and the 'I would have liked just doing laundry and taxes with you' scene.

Also watched Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die which I enjoyed as a weird timeloop movie. Immediately clocked Dino Fetscher in his bit part but did not realize for the entire movie that Sam Rockwell was the main character. Then I looked up what else Dino Fetscher is in lately and unfortunately I cannot find Welsh detective show Under Salt Marsh anywhere because I would watch that. Will just have to watch him and Ben Daniels in season 2 of Foundation again.

Fandomwise, I'm still trapped in my obsession with Scott and Kip from the hockey show and I made a fic rec list for fun and community service since this is not the ship 99% of the fandom is obsessed with but there is great fic for people to read!

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. Hmm, okay, I feel like this was 80% incomprehensible and I was actively resenting my decision to finish reading it but I was maybe into the last couple chapters? There was at least some interesting poetical concepts and phrasing.

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In TV, I finished watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (season 2) which continues to be a ridiculous, clunky show about chasing monsters and having family trauma and I love it.

flareonfury

harpieicons has been making icons so I finally have an icon of my faves, the 50s era squad. I did actually watch the Kong: Skull Island movie (which I think was weak despite Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson being hot) before this season and it gave some context but wasn't ultimately necessary. Random thoughts ( spoilers )

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. Totally enthralled by this. It was ~600 pages and I read it in less than 4 days kind of enthralled. Extremely well written and gut-wrenching historical fiction set in 1600s England. Tortured, obsessive, unreliable narrator POV character Jacob has an okay life until he burns it to the fucking ground and then he does it all over again, like holy fuck. Described as 'erotic', which is very true, but manages to do it without being explicit. I am wrecked by ( spoilers ) I will be thinking about this one. (So many trigger warnings. Be fully prepared if you consider reading this book.)

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Watched another short series Agatha Christie adaptation Why Didn't They Ask Evans? This one definitely did not telegraph the twists like Seven Dials but almost to the opposite point where I'm like wait, did all the pieces fit together?

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Damn, okay. Disturbingly recognizable dystopia.

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In TV, I finished Shrinking (season 3). Continues to be a solid, funny show. This would have been a good series ending but it sounds like they're already renewed for season 4 so will see where that goes. Fuck Parkinson's.

Also watched Seven Dials which I guess is considered a series despite being just 3 episodes. I think it was fine although none of the twists were surprising. Maybe I've read so much Agatha Christie that the general patterns are recognizable.

Ice by Anna Kavan. Apocalypse via gigantic moving walls of ice while an insane dude chases a girl around the world. This was trippy. None of the characters are named. There are abrupt and seemingly impossible POV shifts. It's very psychological horror to follow this obsessed misogynist and his thought processes. Gives similar psychological/climate horror vibes as J. G. Ballard's The Drowned World and the writing hits.

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In TV, I finished Starfleet Academy (season 1) and apparently they have already cancelled it, boo. Was it a little clunky, sure, but all the characters were really fun! I LOVE my Klingon med student Jay-Den and sunshine War College student Kyle and admiral's daughter Genesis and they all deserve more screen time. This show let me see a Vulcan use the phrase 'eat glass' and Paramount has the audacity to cancel it??

In good news though, I went to see Project Hail Mary and it was a great, hopeful space movie. Might go see it again <3 Also need to find if anyone has made any Rocky icons. He's my new best friend.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Space explorers are tortured with hallucinations by a semi-sentient alien ocean. This was pretty fucked up and I enjoyed it. Watched the George Clooney film after reading the book and I think the film tried to match the vibe but somehow it was too idk sleek(?) to be appropriately unsettling to me.

[DNF] Dubliners by James Joyce. Series of kind of vaguely dark, disconcerting slice of life short stories set in Dublin. Not enjoying it so I'm DNFing it halfway through.

[DNF] House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'm letting myself DNF this one too unfortunately. This is my second read attempt and I got farther this time but despite magical realism being interesting to me, I just don't care for it. It reminds me of One Hundred Years of Solitude which I was forcing myself through a bit toward the end.

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In TV, I finished Bridgerton (season 4). The first half felt kind of wooden to me but I liked the second half a lot better. Except that they hid a scene at the end of the credits which is annoying to me! (I was trying to remember which other shows I've watched did this and one of them was X-Men '97.) Why do this? Anyway, Francesca has become one of my favorites and I'm excited for the expected continuation of her storyline.

Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. I did find Peter more enjoyable in this mystery as many people mentioned. Also liked the introduction of Harriet Vane and Miss Climpson. Feel like I will sporadically continue this series when I don't have other books in my reading queue.

Silverview by John Le Carre. Love a spy novel and Le Carre is always good for it. Apparently this was his final novel. RIP. This book reminded me of the movie Black Bag that came out last year (and I loved) since there are several spy couples that are varying levels of dysfunctional.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Family dynamics and existential angst. Kind of obsessed with the dialogue and turn of phrase in this.

Watching the winter Olympics! Yay figure skating and snowboarding and hockey and all kinds of cool sports!

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers. Skipped to book 4 for my second try at Lord Peter Wimsey. Again I'm going to say solid but I'm not sold on loving Lord Peter. I am going to try Strong Poison per like a dozen people's recommendation. I did really like ( several things about this! )

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. LOVED THIS <3 The prose was so good and there was so much yearning and devotion and tragedy and it had time travel/time loop and academia and fighting fascism and personally I love second person so the first/second person POV was very enjoyable and it had swap POV of the (mostly) same events and secret code and dragons!? I could go on. I feel like this was written with me in mind.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. Slice of life in the settlement and farming of Nebraska. This has lovely writing and I really liked it except for the souring I felt at the end. ( spoilers )

This is probably the last book I'll finish in 2025 so, to count up. Total books read in 2025: 48! Or 49 I suppose if I count a book I read for work. So close to 50. This was a really good reading year for me although it corresponded to a not great writing year. Particular favorites were everything by Charlotte Bronte, John Steinbeck, and Octavia Butler, The Blue Castle, and the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Time for me to start my annual Lord of the Rings re-watch. Hope everyone has a good new year's!

Hockey season. I do watch actual hockey as one of the only sports I don't find unforgivably boring but this month has also been hockey media.

Half my tumblr dashboard became obsessed with the new gay hockey show Heated Rivalry so I was like 'okay, I will try it' and yeah, it gave me feelings. I am, however, like the 1% of fandom that cares way more about Scott and Kip than Shane and Ilya. I've watched episodes 3 and 5 multiple times. After episode 3 I also decided I was going to read the Scott/Kip book so:

Game Changers by Rachel Reid. This reads like what I imagine hockey RPF fic to be like. Book Kip is annoying to me but I love show Kip. Overall I think the show hugely elevated the source material.

I will now begin my annual Christmas to New Year's vegetating phase :)

Villette by Charlotte Bronte. The level of emotional repression in this!! I love it. Last page made me scream at Charlotte Bronte's ghost. I do wish I'd kept Google translate at my side as I read it. There was a good amount of French dialogue that I only absorbed contextually.

And in TV, I watched My Adventures with Superman (season 2) which continues to be very fun and cute.

How is it only 1 week til Christmas?! I am not prepared.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Adventures in the Scottish Highlands.

Queen Demon by Martha Wells. Always love Martha Wells' emotionally repressed protagonist voice. Is it wrong that my favorite part of this was the feral, claw-hooved omnivorous Arike horses? <3

In TV, I re-watched Arrow (season 1) and yes it is a silly show but I do really enjoy season 1 where Oliver is just going around shooting people with arrows and we get the Slade and Oliver relationship before everything goes fully insane. I watched the show for them and then season 2 betrayed me so bad! Literally considering a sequel to my now 8-year-old season 1 AU fic where everyone lives and stays friends. Also, shout out to Chris GM51 who collected the flashback scenes into a YouTube playlist so I can just watch the backstory.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Book 1 of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries series. I've been considering reading these for awhile and this was solid but I feel maybe over-hyped. It took me until the last quarter to really get into it. That said, the detail of Lord Peter having shell-shock from WWI added a lot and the conclusion was good. I may read some more but not immediately.

In TV, I finished:

Slow Horses (season 5). Always enjoy my dumbass incompetent spies--except River is on thin ice to me in the final episode regarding his insane lack of self-awareness. Not perhaps my favorite season but I think that will remain season 4 because the focus on River and his grandfather appealed to me.

Great British Baking Show (season 13). Nice bakers making nice things <3

In other news, I am signed up for

rec_cember so prepare for some vid and fic recs from me in December!

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. The library didn't have East of Eden available so I grabbed this Steinbeck instead and it was good. Kind of a collection of slice of life stories set in the same neighborhood. The characters are funny and odd and overall just feel real in a way that's hard to describe.

This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman. Latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book! Continues to be fun and insane. Apparently we are getting book 8 release next year and there is a TV series in the works but now I must wait.

Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice: The Day of Reckoning by Jude Watson. Reading old YA Star Wars books in an effort to get my Obi-Wan angst brain back in gear. I stalled out on a fic I started back in January. Someday I'll find the book in this series that has the Melida/Daan backstory we all love and I've absorbed by fandom osmosis.

Despite my attempt to work on the Star Wars fic, I instead started a new XMFC fic for X-Men Remix Madness 2025. Love that Remix fest is still going after all these years.

In other news, I finally upgraded the OS on my laptop which I absolutely hate doing and lo and behold it is Annoying. Oh, now my programs don't work and I have to go download new versions?? And the old versions were better?? If only I could just take the security patches.

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

I know I just said I was taking a break from book reading but I already had these from the library and after the length of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books they just seemed really doable. Also I did manage to get some of my life things I've been procrastinating on done so yay.

Creatively I feel like I've been procrastinating on any and all of my projects for months so I am attempting the

communal_creators challenge through October 15th. I want to write! I want to vid! I want to bookbind! Please muse come back to me.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman
The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

Carl and Princess Donut ily. I haven't had this level of reading obsession in awhile. I'm over here going through like 200 pages a day. There's one more book published and technically I could buy it on Kindle immediately but it comes out in print on the 23rd and I need to actually get some things in my life together before I lose another week to a 900 page book.

This week also finished out my two current weekly TV shows:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 3): ( spoilers )

Foundation (season 3): ( spoilers )

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Entries tagged with reading

Bored. Back whenever.

additional hostiles in play

mongo is appalled

the debt shall be paid

no myth is safely broken

i am sold twice over

i'm claiming the right to be unhappy

the rule was to choose not to know

sooner or later somebody was bound to say it

if you don't love her now you'll be too late

it ends where it began

2025 books round up

put the biscuit in the basket

it kills me to be forgotten

you have failed this city

my heart's an autoclave

that's a hard no, carl

pick me up and dust me off

nobody expects the spanish inquisition

viva la revolucion, carl