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What I've Read
A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - Second in a series and I bring that up because the people I read who started this book did so without KNOWING that it was the second in a series. (It holds its own but a lot of the background does not make sense).

I really enjoyed this book - the main characters got to do some whacky and hilarious stuff in the midst of quite a serious investigation with high stakes. The sapphic love story is a delight but they are far from perfect people, and I think overall, I enjoyed this more than the first book. I found Maud to be a bit more relatable than Robin, the POV character for most of the first book, but I also just adored Violet and all her showy, prickly ways. Third book comes out this fall.

(I think that The Locked Tomb series may have unlocked something in my brain that really enjoys series, and having to wait for another feels like a gift of future pleasure rather than a punishment for not being a single book.)

Fanfic I've read

cacio e pepe by serephemeral - https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845440 - I adored this "Some Like it Hot" continuation. After movie ends with "Well, nobody's perfect!" Daphe, who is still sometimes Jerry, runs off into the sunset with Osgood. And Joe, and Sugar. The future doesn't look anything like they planned but it's amazing none the less. Kudos to schneefink for reccing this, I would never have found it otherwise and it's officially my favorite Some Like It Hot fic.

Polite Company by spicedrobot - https://archiveofourown.org/works/37924555 - Star Wars Prequels and Clone Wars Cartoon. Maul isn't a very good Jedi. Obi-Wan isn't a very good Sith. They make it work, after the kidnapping.

What I'm Reading

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 23% - A re-read for me for the Discord book club. Super creepy and really readable.

The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - This is my first time reading the "very short introduction" books and it's really interesting! Pulling together some threads about English history and this aesthetic mode that have never quite tied themselves together in my head.

Also, I had re-watched Crimson Peak this week, and it was a fascinating re-watch! I caught so much more of the symbolism around Edith's clothing and Lucille's cryptic statements about their mother. I liked Thomas a lot less on this re-watch, before the ending, but I think I saw more of his wistful attempt to escape. I also totally did NOT remember how much Edith's writing shapes the early edges of her relationship with Thomas - he first is interested in her because of her writing! When he's trying to break her heart, he attacks her writing

The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - 19% - A re-read before I get into the rest of the books for fun. I'm listening to the audiobook and the narrator, who I will not name, is pronouncing "duchy" wrong for the entire book. (So that it rhymes with "cootchie") and I'm solidering bravely on. I forgot how much of the book is just "terrified lesbian of color gradually sells people out for safety and the promise of future power" and ooooh, man, it's good.

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva - This is a very navel-gazing literary theory book that makes me realize all afresh that I have real problems with Freudian framing for everything, BUT, it is cited by every major work on horror that I have read. It's French, it's slow, it's worth a read but it's going to be a slog.

True Colors - Karen Traviss - 23% - static

Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - Static

Underline the Black by not_poignant https://archiveofourown.org/works/41396784 - Probably going to return to this when it's finished.

On Earth as It Is in Heaven by samyazaz https://archiveofourown.org/works/833193 - Soulmate AU of Vikings - You don't need to know anything other than the first season or a vague sense of how history went down

What I'll Read Next

The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things

Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar

Owned and Read/Reading: ~~Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss~~

What I've Read

When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (narrated by Carmen Rose - solid B+ work, good voices but man, the Scottish accent did not work for me.) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/27f29749-a0f6-4b3f-b0ac-32a823d4a43a
Reading this was fun - I had the audiobook a few weeks back, but it got pulled back from Libby before I finished it - when it came up again as free recently, I just started in the same place and it was really cute. I found this a bit eye-rolly in a couple of places, like I often do for romance novels, but overall, I liked both the leads and the situation was very sympathetic.

November Baby by Astrophyllite https://archiveofourown.org/works/35448196 An Untamed fic - Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Niè Míngjué, Sugar Daddy fic, wherein Jiang Cheng is a grad student cut off by his parents after he refuses to disown his troublesome foster brother. This is a very idealized and nonexploitative sugar baby situation - the angsty set-ups mostly landed very softly and miscommunications where smoothed over easily, but there was a some fantastic "pining for the person you are sleeping with" and I adore that.

Girls Weekend by CM Nascosta (narrated by Sierra Kline, who did a GREAT job) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a6bc614f-7950-4f17-a4d6-f7b091648fec
A fun and flirty monsterfucking fic, wherein three young women go to a sexy resort to have some fun times, realize that they have an uncomfortable relationship with the societal structures that they left behind, and ultimately maybe choose some things for themselves. Trigger warning for a character having consistent uncharitable thoughts about her fatness, which occur in the context of her attempting to overcome internalized fatphobia that is linked to her mom's past behavior. Honestly, while that was done with a good touch for character, I didn't really enjoy encountering it. Maybe it would have bugged me less reading this on a screen than in an audiobook.

a simple thing by iridan https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099556 - Mandalorian, Boba Fett/Din Djarin, not in canon with Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars Expanded Universe
Oh, god, I unabashedly and unreservedly love this fic. It's so fucking long and carefully constructed and takes seriously that Din Djarin is coming out of a cult and encountering his own religion and tradition outside of that framework for the first time. It's very full of the complicated feelings of someone who going from "I am damned" to "well, if I'm damned, I might as well do what I actually want" to "Wait, maybe I'm not damned" to "Wait, actually, maybe damn all of you assholes for treating people like this!" - a journey that takes him thru Mandalorian history and the Jedi and takes seriously the slaving history on Tatooine. It's an impossibly long fic that posted the final chapter in January this year, and I really wanted to go back and read the entire fic - but alas, that project will remain for me in the future. Finishing these last few chapters was a wonderful journey and I heartily recommned this fic.

What I'm Reading

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I'm in Chapter 45 - what the fuck. I love this. due March 4th or so - EDIT - actually ended up finishing this and I'm not going to edit this entry but, future Kite, please note, you did finish this.

Good Lord Bird by James McBride (narrator Michael Boatman, who is doing a very complicated thing very well!) Just started the audiobook of this after realizing that I wasn't likely to get to read it while I'm working on my knitting project. I was delighted to see that once again, my project of acquiring as many e-library cards as I could manage has paid off - a new library had it immediately available! I'm going to try and get it done for this Saturday.

What I'll Read Next

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee - due March 1

Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar

In other news, Sock Madness has started and I have gotten ten rows into the difficult chart for the sock that I need to complete by next Wednesday. Which, I stopped to do the math on this and realized, if I want to get both socks done for next week, I need to get about 40 rows per day... which is about how much I have done TOTAL. Approx 150 rows of knitting per sock X 2 socks/ 8 days =37.5, but let's be real, that row count does not account for the heel. So, ideally, I would be finishing the whole ballow section of the intarsia chart today, but let's be real, that won't happen.

What I've Read

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison - (Cemetaries of Amalo #2) This is the second novel focusing on Thara Celehar, who combines Father Brown with noir detective in a fantasy Victorian setting. This book will not make much sense without the previous two books in this universe, the wildly popular Goblin Emperor and the first book on Celehar's life, Witness for the Dead. I really enjoyed this novel - it's got an overarching plot around the murders of a noblewoman and a foundling child, but also combines moments of gentle episodes with other people who come to ask Celehar for help speaking to the dead on more mundane matters (like finding where a recently deceased baker hid his famous scone recipe before he died). The main plot is not quite as tight as the Witness for the Dead, but I am here for the smaller scale that allowed some of the personal relationships that Celehar created and sustained in the last novel to breathe. Addison, aka Sarah Monette, is a great writer and I would generally recommend this. I suspect from the ending, which wraps up some of the emotional threads of the books but not all, is leading to a third book ... and a quick check confirms that. (And also that there are two short stories in this series that I had no idea where there.) I don't suggest reading this book without reading the Goblin Emperor first, which does most of the heavy lifting on the worldbuilding.

Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera - This is from 1987, there was a film in 2002 which was when I heard of this. I really enjoyed this novel, which was not much like what I expected! Ihimaera has a really clear voice and while the novel does some explaining for a non-Maori audience, I had the feeling of being a bit slow on the mark at certain points - which I usually take to be the sign of a book written from a cultural perspective that's different enough from mine that the editors haven't totally Americanized it. Tho this book focuses on a child, Kahu, the great-granddaughter of a Maori tribal leader, Aripana, Kahu is not the main perspective. The narrator is Aripana's adult grandson, Kahu's uncle, who views his family and community with affection, respect, and occasional irony. In places, this is a hard read - Aripana is dismissive and unkind to his great-grandchild because she's not a boy and therefore, he thinks, not worthy of a leadership role. But the book makes a point that his viewpoint is countered from within the community. While there are White characters and culture in this book, there isn't a "Nice White Person" character to distract from the actual narrative. I do think Apipana had a really important drive for cultural preservation, which makes a strong case that Maori identity and worldview has a specific lens to view the world- losing that lens would be devastating to their community and culture, and Aripana's greatest efforts are focused on preserving it and passing it on to the younger generation. (Sidebar: I am nearly certain the narrator, Rawiri, is queer - he seems like he has a romance with a man that takes him to Papua New Guinea for a couple of years, tho nothing is explicit. Ihimaera is gay and I looked up an interview with him that alluded to his childhood having some commonalities with Kahu's. I was delighted to stumble across a queer writer when I wasn't expecting the family connection.) I thought this was a great book, I am glad my expectations about a blandly cute childhood story were challenged. I've ordered more books by Ihimaera from the library now.

I read a bunch of fic, but nothing even approaching the 50K mark so none of it really makes the cut.

What I'm Reading
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell -For the Great Queer Supernatural ReWatch - on Chapter 6, and we are finally getting firmly into the realm of film Westerns, rather than novels. Chap 5 made me want to re-read Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Look. So, I kind of flopped out of Dracula Daily but I did sign up for Whale Weekly, where you read Moby Dick in the traditional order in the form of emails sent to your inbox. I'm here for the wild nonsense Ishmael is selling. It's already really goofy and I have too much history of the Essex to not enjoy the irony of the start.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book Club - This is slower going now. I thought that a Big Spoiler plot event that I had heard about would take place somewhere in the latter quarter of the book. Instead it took place in the front half, and I'm tied up with trying to figure out where the plot can go from here. When I have something I'm not super enthralled to read, I often like to have a spoiler or two to help me engage with the plot and keep momentum up.

walk by faith/tell no one what you've seen by Killbothtwins - A Star Wars Obi-Wan time travels back to his padawan self story. This is adorable and I'm really enjoying the writing - old Obi-Wan has all the compassion we see in his original series appearances and he's feels like a man who's been thru a war and gone into hiding, and he's like, 13. I don't normally want to deal with too much time travel fixit fic with Star Wars, but this is maybe making me interested in the subgenre. It's part of the much larger series, The Massive Machinery of Hope, and I'm looking forward to getting into it.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31805044

What I'll Read Next

Library books in the house:
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Newly purchased: At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey (aka, Xiaq, a fic that started as a Check, Please! hockey webcomic fanfic starring Kent Parson and OMC)

Owned and need to read: Upright Women Wanted (Which I just randomly read a great essay by this author on being liberated from narratives of queer grief and death), NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, California Bones, the Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, Penric's Demon, True Colors by Karen Traviss

What I’ve Read
So, I have finished nothing that was traditionally published in the last week, but I have read a non-trival amount of fic, and worked thru a lot of books that I hadn’t actually had a chance to finish yet.
For the finished things, I’m trying to pull back into the format I used for recc’ing works, because if I preserve more info, then it’s easier to find things if they are later taken down

Title: The Legend Of Liob by Killbothtwins
Fandom: Star Wars Clone Wars
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38656698
Length:19K
Summary: The Republic sends a combat photographer to be attached to the 212th until further notice, citing the need for a morale boost. The clones make up a fake clone, citing the absolute fact that it is very funny. Somehow, these two things save the galaxy.
Why I love it: I love Cody’s point of view on this fic, as he tries desperately to reign in the nonsense that several thousand bored soldiers get into while playing a joke on their newly assigned war correspondent. I love the original character’s general willingness to do what she can to help the clones out and use public opinion to help them. The troopers of the 212th are having some fun in the middle of some of the worst possible things that could happen to a person, and it is truly hilarious. This is just a very fun fix it fic!

Title: Triumvirate by celinamarniss
Fandom: Star Wars ex-canonical pre-disney works by Timothy Zahn
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1494842
Length: 77K
Summary: (Mine) Mara Jade and Prince Luke Skywalker of Naboo are given as concubines to Admiral Thrawn. Surprisingly, this works out well.
Why I love it: Welp, I did not expect a threesome where Thrawn the meat in a Luke and Mara sandwich, but, hello, we are here. It’s a bit kinky, a bit dark, a bit sweet, a bit of an AU

Title: Seeking Shelter By sphagnum
Fandom: Original work
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15648981
Length: 7k
Summary: Guns down, gentlemen. Oscar protocol. The betas lowered their rifles instantly, pointing them at the ground in front of Max instead of his chest. Max took a deeper breath in, his tension easing a bit as he moved past the part of the plan where he might just get shot dead before he had a chance to try to bargain. It had always been a risk; it had just seemed like a better death than slow starvation.
Why I love it: I unrepentantly adore writing where characters are operating thru a hard language barrier. In this case, one character has a form of fictional virus-induced aphasia and it’s really well written and interesting to see the world thru his eyes while also getting the dialogue of the people around him.

What I’m Reading:
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - book club, descriptive heavy but interesting. Someone I love who typically has deeply different reading tastes than me truly hated this book, and I took that as the recommendation that it usually is.

Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - Reading for the Great Queer Supernatural Rewatch - we’re thinking about westerns and masculinity! And how that genre of work says things about The American West as a setting and what it means for the kind of masculinity that the characters of Supernatural are dealing with. Related to the third chapter, we also watched Stagecoach (1938) which had some fascinating elements to it in terms of writing and an ensemble cast. (It was the first movie in which I found John Wayne to be charming and a good actor - I normally get deeply grossed out by him!) The racism in Stagecoach felt generic, by which I mean, it’s an inherent part of the genre and cannot be removed, but was also not pointed or with a lot of motivation behind it. Racism as wallpaper. Had a nice long discussion with a friend of how that compared to the John Carter of Mars novels that they’re currently reading, which really wants to pound into your head that the Martians cannot actually feel love and are terrible people who deserve to be conquered. Compared to Stagecoach, where Geronimo is a boogeyman and the Apaches are portrayed with all the inhumane violence of a twister, the John Carter novels are far less palatable to us. But I have a sneaking sense that Stagecoach’s racism has a longer tail because as a viewer of the film, you have to accept The Bargain that a Western movie is making in order to get any pleasure from it.

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir by Jeremy Barlow - a bit spare. I recall that this was a means to publish plots that had been cut short by the end of the Clone Wars cartoon, and it’s a got a little bit of that feeling - I keep thinking that this would be better with performances behind the characters.

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell - continues great! I'm about halfway thru and the main couple, who started the novel by trying to pull off scam to fake a mental bond that would put one of them permanently in control of the other, are now in a situation where the power dynamic has swapped! The whole thing is running on a basis of trust, admiration for each other's deeply different skill sets, and a solid basis of unacknowledged lust, so it's pretty much catnip.

What I’ll Read Next

Library books in the house
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Recently purchased and need to read: NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, California Bones

Newly purchased: Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk - this apparently started life as a Destiel fic and I didn’t know that and I have Polk $11 for the good of the fandom collective even before I got into the book

Also newly purchased - To Seek and to Find by Tamryn Eradani - I found this on a list of books that had started their lives as Supernatural fanfic and I bought it almost as an act of solidarity - I’m hopeful that it’s good, but if it’s not, it’s still only $5.

Own but reminding myself - Penric's Demon! Get on that! Fansplaining podcast just described it as Venom but in the middle ages, good god, ride that like you stole it.

What I've Read
- Omega Required - Dessa Lux (aka, fanfic writer Dira Sudis) - Werewolf Omegaverse m/m arranged marriage romance novel- I bought this in 2018, read 25% of it and then never picked it up again. I finished it this week and I found the main couple really quite charming. Beau wants to be a werewolf doctor to humans, Rory ran away from home at 16 with an older man who promised to take good care of him and has some major trauma around sex. It's careful to show Rory's recovery, tho it's a romance novel so he's improving on a pretty brisk pace. Beau is used taking care of only himself and not asking for help so he makes some fairly stupid (but very in-character!) mistakes around his new job. The resolution is sweet and generally hits the points that think a thoughtful romance ought to. I am probably going to read other things Dira has written - this series has a couple of other books, and this is hitting a self-indulgent spot for me.

Wife to the Marines: A Military Reverse Harem Romance by Krista Wolf (reverse harem het romance, straight woman with three straight men) - Well, this book had some great elements? The sex was fun, the character dynamics were a bit spare (perfectly fine for this genre) but what was there felt engaging, the plot was brisk and both acknowledged the silly elements but made them feel emotionally true to the female lead's internal life. I finished it and at the low price of $1, I feel like I got my money's worth. I have definitely paid more for worse.

But, oh man, I am too queer for this book. I am just too dang queer for this book. I literally picked this up because I was curious about the reverse harem romance sub-genre (aka, straight woman with multiple male partners, yay!) and wow, this is just - like, do gay people exist in this world? Do ace people? Polyamory is briefly mentioned but not actually engaged with at all, so functionally, nah. Because I just cannot imagine a world where queer people exist and these men are making the life choices they are making about committed relationships to other men, and having sex with the same woman in a committed relationship, and then like, just not talking about the fact that you are in a queer poly relationship. It's just, like, the most hetero and monogamous take possible on a very queer, very poly relationship. It's almost as if it's a het romance where the dude just happens to have three bodies? It's so fucking weird to see a book go so far out of its way to frame this as hetero brothers-in-arms who love each other? Like, the intense military friendship that is actually a romance in disguise is literally a gay cliche - this one is ours, straight people.

Also, massive trigger warnings for eating disorders shit (the woman is a trainer and runs a youtube channel where she makes sad tasteless healthfood, constantly breaks food into good or bad categories, calorie counting, talks in detail about the weight loss plans of her clients, none of it needed) and also, uh, military kink? using the American invasion of Afghanistan as a neutral-to-justified backdrop for a personal vendetta? (Dudes, is it gay to avenge the death of your boyfriend's brother under the cover of a legitimate Marine mission while you lie to him and keep him out of the loop, safe at home with your other shared boyfriend and girlfriend?) This was a compellingly written novel full of sympathetic depictions of people who I would not ever want to have a drink with!

What I'm Reading

A Taste of Gold and Iron - Alexandra Rowlan - A re-read for my book club. So sweet, so queer, so fun.

Thrawn: Treason - Timothy Zahn - Getting fun and brisk with this one! 55% in.

Hunting Towards Heartstill - Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars Cartoon au - marriage of convenience, fake marriage, Mace Windu/Cody - Slowing down because we're crash landed on an abandoned Sith planet and I'm watching Mace be annoyed at Anakin and, well, he's very annoying! I'm going to try and buckle down and get some more under my belt so that I can actually just get past this part. I got stuck here last time too.

Stay With Me, Go Places - cac0daemonia- https://archiveofourown.org/works/39540420 - "After months of living a quiet, peaceful life on Ryloth, Waxer and Boil must don their armor again. What begins as a rescue operation in conjunction with a bounty hunter becomes a journey that the Force itself seems to have a hand in." - I am really enjoying this ongoing series, the Reconstruction Corps AU, which posits that a fairly minor change in the Clone Wars plot around the clones control chips allowed the Jedi to stop Darth Sideous and save the galaxy and allow clones like Waxer and Boil to retire to little backwaters and build themselves a community.

What I'll Read Next

2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson - Book club pick, long one, too! Bought it since we're probably splitting it up over six weeks

Library books:
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Libby:
Truth of the Divine - Lindsay Ellis
Devil House - John Darnelle

I'm traveling this week so I'm going to be out of ambit tomorrow (aka actual Wednesday) so I figured I would write out this week's reading in advance and add to it if I finish anything on the plane.

Also, useful little note for Storygraph users- they now have a way to log things as Not A Book! This was specifically added so that people could use Storygraph to track their fanfic without having to clog the Storygraph databases with non-book items. Since it does not add the fanfic to the larger catalog of books, it also doesn't put fic authors in the awkward position of having to ask people not to link their fanfic to a non-fanfic audience.
Full details here: https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/-not-a-book-status

What I've Read
Homeworld Elegy by Ashcroft_Writes - part 2 of Gunslinger's Paean ( sprawling and wonderful AU from Epsiode 4:07 of The Clone Wars) - Technically an unfinished series but existing works each are complete. I found this to be just... solidly one of the best books I've read. Any genre, but in particular for sci fi. And it's about CAD BANE from the fucking Clone Wars cartoon. After the events of the first fic, which lead to Cad maybe sort of kind of sidling sideways towards considering maybe his current way of life is not working for him exactly as it is, he has to return to the space station he grew up on. This fic takes its original characters and just soaks them with meaning and builds metaphor and culture into everything - it feels incredibly sci fi and incredibly real. Highly recommend both works in the series.

Edit after the fact: I have just discovered by clicking around the internet that Ashcroft also writes under the pen name I.A. Ashcroft and have purchased some books!

Honorable mention for a shorter fic - On the Side by spicedrobot - Maul/Cad Bane, sex work, mind sex - just a great take on an interesting concept!

What I'm Reading
Thrawn: Treason - Timothy Zahn - book three - I skipped book two because it did not have Eli Vanto, and I'm a simple creature.

Edit after the fact: I started Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat on the plane home and I'm definitely in a better place to read it this time (The Clones Wars Cartoon, Mace Windu/Cody marriage of convenience, very long). I think I originally started it before I had really gotten into The Clone Wars Cartoon fandom, and there are things that I remember reading before and being bewildered by - but now I am catching a lot more of the references. I really wish I knew what I had first read by Blackkat - someday maybe I'll go back thru my reading history on AO3 and figure it out. But this is one of her longest and works and I truly think it's shaping up to be one of the best - she really is one of my favorite authors, in or out of fandom, and when she decides to write a love story, by god, she writes a love story.

What I'll Read Next

Darth Maul: Lockdown
Whale Rider
Thrawn -Heir to the Empire
Maybe Spinning Silver
Tiger's Daughter

Things I own:
Might re-read City of Lies in order to get back on the page for the sequel book.
Hunting Towards Heartstill -blackkat
Think of England - KJ charles
True Colors - Karen traviss

What I've Read
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik - Oh, this is how you end a trilogy. This books took the relationships and themes and even the monsters that have followed the main character from the very first book, and hunted them all down to pull the last thematic dregs from their depths. I didn't quite cry when I found out what really happened to Orion, but man, it hurt. It hurt so good. El Higgins will always live in my heart.

Mutually-Assured Destruction by Sineala - Bucky/Tony 616 Marvel comics in the 1960s - Identity porn! 1960's Tony Stark is Iron Man and nobody knows. So when the Winter Soldier comes out of the Soviet Union to ask to join the Avengers on the condition that he doesn't ever tell anyone his name or reveal his face, even to Captain America.... Tony thinks, oh, maybe we could be friends? Maybe I can be a little bit myself with this one? And things snowball from there. This is a great fic by an author that loves the 1960s comics version of the Avengers, and honestly, the tone fits those comics so well. This fic was slipping into a warm bath - angsty just in measure to the comfort. I was following updates from Sineala's Patreon while she was writing it and I was so glad to see if come out!

a simple thing - Chapter 47- by iridan - Star Wars, Mandalorian, Boba Fett/Din Djarin. - Chapter 47 just hit this week, which means we are ONE CHAPTER FROM THE ENDING OF THE FIC,this is not a drill. This fic is 765K words and Chapter 47 alone was 27K words, and I heartily recommend it if you want to watch someone really live into their tags that say " Din 'I Can't Talk Right Now I'm Doing Queer Person With Religious Trauma Shit' Djarin" and "rebuilding a culture is hard." Honestly, great work on the cultural stuff about how there's been tons of contradictory ways of portraying Mandalorians in Star wars, and this fic makes them all feel like people who have been out in the world, trying their best.

Fic Rec based on Scholomance series: If you want a smaller, single person version of the themes in The Scholomance Trilogy, I heartily recommend two other works by Astolat (aka, Naomi Novik in her fic writing persona) -
-Heal Thyself a Draco post-canon character study about what damage using Dark Magic does to a person, and what it takes for Draco to really come out of it the other side. (Technically Harry/Draco, but only towards the end, well after Draco has done the work of fixing himself.)
-Victory Condition: A Tranformers fic in which Megatron and Optimus Prime have to actually talk thru their world views, and Optimus Prime has to face that the Golden Age he remembered was built on the suffering of people he didn't see. (Honestly, I kind of recommended The Scholomance series to someone based on the idea that El Higgins is a Megatron with a bit more support and Orion the human is pretty clearly based on Orion Pax aka Optimus Prime, but with some complicated history.)

Honorable mentions to fic that didn't quite make the novel-length cut: Don’t be afraid. by spqr -Star Wars, Anakin/Obi-Wan, ages reversed. I... I find this pairing normally not for me, and I am aware that this is working on me because I love fic where a traumatized character is confronted with love and care, and well, this did the job.

What I'm Reading

Homeworld Elegy - Ashcroft Writes - Star Wars AU - Obi-Wan/ Cad Bane - 138K words -Once I got some momentum on this fic, I'm just flying thru it. I'm in a section that creates a whole history for Cad Bane and Duros and their world and his childhood romance with a friend, and I'm like, I thought this was just a mean blue man in a big hat, and now you are making my feel emotions??? It's just working for me really well.

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis - I'm just not finishing this very quickly, dunno why. The voice just feels like listening to someone telling a story.

What I'll Read Next:

Library books are on hold for this week because I'm going to be traveling, unless I get finished with them before I go.

Darth Maul: Lockdown

Whale Rider

Thrawn -Heir to the Empire
Maybe Spinning Silver
Tiger's Daughter

Things I own:
Might re-read City of Lies in order to get back on the page for the sequel book.

Hunting Towards Heartstill -blackkat

Think of England - KJ charles

What I've Read

I have read so, so much Star Wars: Clone Wars era fanfic this week and particularly while on vacation - it's going to be a bit of a slog to write them all here but I'll try!

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson - I read her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Thirty-One Sons, Thirteen Moons by sual - Fairy tale version of Cody has to sleep with Jedi witch Obi Wan to break a curse that spits out a new son of Jango Fett every year. Features 31 sons and some dang fun writing.

A Slow Fall Towards Grace by glimmerglanger - A hard read in places, but a great review of Obi-Wan's expanded universe and Clone Wars history, with the addition of some omegaverse tropes. Obi-Wan just... sincerely believes that he is completely unloveable, in the face to Cody's steadfast adoration. Love this.

Transactional States by glimmerglanger (Archive Restricted) - Jango/Obi-Wan. Sex slave Obi-Wan, and the slow redemption of Jango Fett after Galidraan. Just... excellent depiction of flawed, injured people choosing to be better.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. There is a little less clarity of purpose here - Traviss introduces a bunch of new characters and the book gets weirdly heterosexual. I also realized that there's a lack of dialogue tags and characters speak in similar voices, so I often had to double back to figure out who was saying which lines. That said, I'm going to continue in this series.

What I'm Reading Now

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Plugging along with this until the next week book clubl.

Make Your Bed (Lie in It) by glimmerglanger

What I'm Reading Next

True Colors by Karen Traviss
Never Say You Can't Survive
Hugo short stories and nonfiction works

What I've Read

Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss – I did not expect to like this as much as I did. I felt like I was back in middle school, reading a book a day and getting really sunk into the world. Like a knife to gut, this book is straightforward. Exactly what I wanted to read.

Strangers Like Me by K_R_Closson - This fic just really nailed for me a world in which Obi-Wan Kenobi was rescued by Mandalorians. It's very, very good. I am noticing that Obi-Wan's backstory in canon is an ongoing spiral of tragedies, and I adore that fanfic writers have quite simply not forgotten that. I know I read some of the novels that detail his early life in the Jedi Order and leaving it and coming back, but man, Closson really nailed this one. Bravo!

I have also been reading a lot of stuff that is moderately too short to mention, but mostly in Star Wars.

What I'm Reading

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Like Kate Elliot usually does, I'm off to a slow start meeting all the characters and seeing the world thru their eyes. I wish I could mainline this one, but it's for book group, so slow and steady. I want more Persephone.

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson -I'm currently reading her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. It's got a lot to recommend it, not least of which is ease of reading. It's even in a shitty, 2006 trade paperback that is falling apart and losing pages - I am in love.

What I'll Read Next

Westerns by Lee Clark Mitchell - for Supernatural theory reading
Never Say You Can't Survive

What I've Read

Claimed by the Orc Prince by Lionel Hart - Don't judge me, this was a fun little bit of porn, and I wanted to add another to the Books I Read in February List
Spring in Hell and Everything's Blooming by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars - Ok, this was just an excellent Hurt/Comfort story with Jon Antilles/Rex the Clone Trooper. It's just dark and wonderful.
trade your heart for bones to know by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars unfinished, read to chap18 - Oh, man, this is just catnip.
Pretty by astolat - Game of Thrones - Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth - a great little epilogue about Cersei on a great story.
"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow - This was a very interesting look at the dynamics between cult fandom and producers of the shows they love. The focus on Supernatural was a little light and a little early - I would love to see this author revisit the show's last ten years - but a very solid entry into my reading. It's in Transformative Works and Cultures 4.

What I'm Reading

Still reading Running on Lightning Feet by Blackkat from last week - the last few chapters are getting a rewrite and there's an element of risk aversion to the fact that I don't want to finish it before then.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - I am about ten pages in, but this book is charming and I need to get the focus set up so I can get on it.

What I'm Going to Read Next

"Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural" by Line Nybro Petersen
"Good and Evil in the World of Supernatural" by Avril Hannah-Jones
I don't really know - I'm not super inspired about it just today, but I have no doubt it's going to be something by Blackkat
Maybe I'll just stick my hand into the To Read pile and grab something? Who knows, there's a lot there that I could get into!

Work in Progress Report

I've signed up for Sock Madness, and the qualifying round sock pattern has just come out - so I now have a bunch of things to get into.

What I've Read

Peter Darling by Austin Chant - This novel did not disappoint me. It really leaned into the idea of Neverland as an escape for Peter Pan, and gave him a lived reality as trans man to really need to find somewhere safe to escape to. It's got excellent character development for him, from a scared little boy to a more thoughtful man, and I love watching a fantastical landscape shape itself as an extension of character development. Also, this author understands that Captain James Hook is very gay and very hot.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin - This is great and just, so fast! A real driving plot with compelling characters and a real love of New York. An excellent book to read in companion with Light From Uncommon Stars. They are both stories that center what it's like to live in a city, as a person of color, and all the joy and life and connection and frustration that entails - loving but clear-eyed.

TV Horror by Stacey Abbott and Lorna Jowett -Meh. This felt like a book report, or a literature review. Valuable to read, just a bit dry.

What I'm Reading

One Last Stop by Casey Mc Quiston - Just getting started on this but I already feel a lot of sympathy for the main character - she feels very displaced and isolated but maybe, carefully, this is the place for her to find a landing spot.

running with lightning feet by blackkat - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) AU Fic that's focused on an AU where the Nightbrother Feral, the little brother of Darth Maul and Savage Opress, survives longer than in canon, and falls into the hand of oddly compassionate Jedi. Blackkat does amazing writing, and while I watched some of the Clone Wars cartoon in the past few years, I clearly did not connect to it the way that this author did. They are bringing out so many nuance of the injustice and hardship and personal cost of war that this CHILDREN'S CARTOON set up and then could not fully delve into. This focuses on the parallels between the clone soldiers (Wolffe, mostly, but a large cast) and how they parallel the Nightbrothers' experience on Dathomir - property, with lives largely unimportant to the people who control their fate. It's great, it's sprawling, I am slightly afraid of the fact that the last few chapters are not posted. But I have been mainlining Blackkat's works for the past few days due to Anxiety About Real Life and there are so many very long works that are being continuously updated that I'm willing to roll the dice here.

What I'll Read Next

"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Something from the To Be Read pile

It's late and it has been a long day, so I'm going to make this quick!

I've Read:

Paladin's Grace by T Kingfisher - it's great! Go read it!

I'm Reading:

Peter Darling - Austin Chant - Loving this!
The City We Became - NK Jemisin - Also great!
TV Horror

What I'll Read Next:
Bequeathed from Pale Estates by Author376, I think.
Re-Read the Westing Game
Inheritance Games?

What I've Read:
Inspired by my mainlining of The Book of Boba Fett*, I have read a good chunk of Mandalorian fanfic this week, so this list will contain some fic recs! (I'd love more, I'm finding them very entertaining.)

Don't Let it in (With No Intention to Keep it) by Purplesauris - Mandalorian cottagecore, set after The Mandalorian season 2, Din Djarin/Boba Fett/Luke Skywalker - Luke makes a cottage for himself and Grogu to find some peace. Then Din shows up and Luke falls in love with him, slowly, and they make a home together. Then Din's boyfriend shows up.

tell me what the bees say by petraquince (incomplete) - Mandalorian cottagecore AU, set somewhere in New England, Din Djarin/Boba Fett/Luke Skywalker - "It’s been three years since Luke inherited his Uncle Ben’s old house and garden after his death and he still finds himself reeling from the loss sometimes. But he buries himself in his raised beds and becomes a staple at the local farmer’s market. Life is serene, but he still feels like something is missing — until his new neighbors move into the dilapidated cottage down the road. Passion sprouts and love blossoms as he finds himself inextricably bound to the family that he has always been searching for."
Why I love it: Luke is awkward and sweet and there are bees. This is more of a romance with a touch of star wars.

Separate Ways by PepperPrints - the OG Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker fic, posted before the end of season one, and full of delightful found family vibes. A re-read.

staring down the barrel of the hot sun by magneticwave - An AU where Anakin Skywalker never fell to the dark side, and where Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker will follow Obi-Wan Kenobi to broker a peaceful transition of power for the unknown Mandalorian who just won his rule by taking the Darksabre from an unjust king. Short and sweet, love the writing and the cultural exchange.

And one that's not like the others: Ad Augustana per Sciencia by Star_flaming (still reading this, actually, it's 150K) Hux/Kylo Ren, written for The Force Awakens and does not include The Last Jedi

Summary: Hux prided himself on being a man who managed to have interests outside of the military. His newest interest; history so old that many thought it useless in the modern age. And he could have been quite content, reading articles and books on ancient cultures if it wasn't for Kylo Ren, who seemed to have made it his goal to inject himself into Hux's academic pursuits when he wasn't destroying the ship through his apparent self-destructive tendencies. Or: Academia brings two idiots together and builds a new regime"

My notes: Look, I normally think that Hux is a fucking Nazi and pretty repellent. (Full credit to Domhnall Gleeson on that bit of acting.) But this is written with a different mindset for the character and I am kind of able to work with this divergent military history buff who worries about the stress tolerances on their version of the Death Star and also if Kylo Ren is eating enough. There are some excellent bits of "military person being competent" here and some excellent fake academia, which, well, I am a sucker for. I haven't finished this yet.

Side note: I started this post by writing the section below, "What I'm (still) Reading" and felt a bit sheepish that I hadn't finished any books this week and now, looking back on this batch of fic, I feel less inclined to say that I did no reading this week.

What I'm Reading:
Paladin's Grace, by T. Kingfisher - Carried over from last week, I'm slowing down as we get more plotty but I would like to persevere in the face of the slower pace.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin is having the absolute opposite problem - I have to stop because it's a book club read and if skip ahead I don't get to do the fun part where we make mid-point predictions about where the book is going to go. In this case, oh, god I have no idea how this will get resolved but I am having a blast. Manny and Brooklyn and Queen are just delightful - it's a fast paced read and I read the whole first half in roughly a day. (To the point where I felt disappointed that I'd ""done no reading this week""" before I realized, uh, no, I had just devoured that book) This book is an excellent but really distinct companion piece to Light from Uncommon Stars - both have a deeply rooted experience of being a particular person in a particular place - Asian in LA and Black in NYC - and love that experience and convey some facet of that to the reader very well.

Sabriel by Garth Nix Audio book - ongoing.

What I'll Read Next
Honestly I am just going to aim to finish the books I have got going

Books I bought and don't yet have a planned time to read but really want to?

Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
The Devil of Dark Hollow
King's Dragon - Kate Elliot - I read a LOT of this series when I was in maybe middle school and I 100% did not understand that I was slashing Alain/Fifth Son and was angry that the book didn't carry that thru.
Peter Darling - Austing Chat - TRANS PETER PAN. He can't explain to his family why he can't stand being "Wendy" so he returns to Neverland as an adult and has an enemies to lovers relationship with Captain Hook - the rec was so compelling from an online friend I just went for it.
Victoria Goddard books - The Bride of the Blue Wind, Stargazy Pie

*(Was that show good? Probably not. It felt really kind of confused about why the story was being told. There was a kind of purposelessness to it? Nothing bad, just. Why is Boba Fett doing this particular thing here and now? Because it makes Disney money. )

Work in Progress

My current sock project, Scylla in Malabrigo Candome, nears completion - I have picked a fancy slipped stitch form of ribbing to complement the slipped stitch pattern. I'm ignoring the charted instructions with some glee to add extra yarn overs in the rows before the slipped stitches so that the fabric doesn't tug itself out of alignment. While I love the yarn, it's knitting up quite dark and it's a challenge to get the level of contrast I want on the slipped stitches, but I'm very pleased with how soft it is and how well it's knitting up.

Reading Meme!

What I've Read

I've finished House of Leaves! (Mark Danielewski) This book was a TOME, but a fascinating read. I think it has some fame for being just a very weird book, which it is, and I felt like the ending was more of a fizzle than a bang, but that might be because I read a lot of the Appendices and the Whalestoe Letters as they became relevant to the book, rather than at the end. I really enjoyed it as a deeply impressive act of typesetting - which sounds like faint praise but it's really not. This book weaves the physical reality of the book into the narrative, in some straightforward ways and in some deeply strange ones. It's definitely horror - it left me with a somewhat abiding sense of unease and distrust towards reality around me - and it's a book that cries out for annotation. I really enjoyed watching the book talk to itself and then commenting on that in the extremely large margins.

I suppose I have a bit of personal myth built around this book. I have an emailed library notice from 2009 that confirms I ordered it from a public library for pick-up, which means I specifically requested it. I think that I found it first in my college library, but I just can't be sure - the only edition that I have ever seen was published in 2000, and I definitely did not encounter it before high school. I have tried to pick it up and read it so many times that I eventually bought the book because I knew I would never get thru it in the timeframe of a library check-out. But it's still been ten years and I have a vivid and enduring memory of getting to a very early part of the novel, where the main characters measure a home's interior wall over and over with greater tools and increasing precision, only to confirm again and again that they are encountering an impossible thing - the interior wall is larger than the exterior wall, the house is not interested in the limits of physical space, and they are encountering something that is uninterested in conforming to human perception. And every time! I would get to that part and bail! It was too much!

I suspect that the last calendar year's focus on horror films has really helped me get into the headspace where I could pick this book up and actually finish it.

I have also finished the much briefer but extremely creepy Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, a graphic novel that showed up at my house without me ordering it! I have no idea where this came from, though I recognize some of the comics, especially "His Face All Red" from its rounds on Tumblr. The book is excellent and deeply weird. I highly recommend it, but maybe not late at night.

What I'm Reading

I started and then put down Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. The premise is quite charming - aging rockers in a fantasy world where a 'band' is not a group of musicians but a team of fighters, and the main character, Clay, is legitimately charming. But I keep bouncing off the random casually misogynists asides. They are not bad as, say, Jim Butcher and his weird fetish for sexy teens, but just... it's very clear that this is a man with no interest in women as characters trying to write his female side characters in a not sexist way, and landing flat. And he's included a fair number of women side characters! He definitely thinks that having his main characters robbed by a team of unsexy women is a plus!

I'm still delighted by the tone and the concept - it's got an 'inspired by Terry Pratchett' vibe in terms of really exploring the edges of what it means to do "battle of the bands but they have swords" reality, so I'm going to go back to it! But, oof, those little grace notes about ugly prostitutes or pretty women being sell outs are just... not my vibe, my dude.

I have picked up The Missing Page by Cat Sebastien, I am about 20 pages in and it's already delightful and making me want to read the previous novel again for the sheer joy of being in an excellently written mystery. Also, I love the fact that we immediately get to revisit the Cottage Lesbians from the previous book - it's a soft and gentle comfort to think that in every era of history, we have always found each other.

I'm also reading a Temeraire novel-length fanfic "Terror in War, Ornament in Peace" by WerewolvesAreReal, in which William Laurence makes some different decisions after the end of the canonical events of Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik, and we see a lot more of Napoleon Bonaparte.

What I'll Read Next
I'm going to finish Light from Uncommon Stars after this book club meeting (I hate to read ahead)
Finishing The Missing Page
Some By Virtue Fall will be out next week!
Need to do more SPN Queer Rewatch Reading - TV Horror chapters 3-4
I bought Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Between Men because I adored reading Epistemology of the Closet
I'm vaguely interested to see what Mark Danielewski has done since House of Leaves - there are some interesting ebooks of his floating around.
Might hunt down more of Emily Carroll's digital works because her wikipedia pages suggests that some of them are interactive in a way that can't be booked.

What I've Read

I report with some chagrin I have not read any books to completion since last week.

I have read or re-read some excellent fanfic! I re-watched the first season of the Witcher on Netflix with my sweetheart, and, uh, surreptitiously watched season two on my own. So I felt in the mood for some Witcher fic

I started with some of the classics - Astolat's Blooded Crown, and Misethere, and Never Did Run Smooth - https://archiveofourown.org/series/621487 and I have been branching out, so if anyone knows anything good, I am happy to find recs!

What I'm Reading

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - this book is keeping me on my toes! One element that I am really enjoying is how much of an ensemble piece it feels like - you get to see into the lives and deep feelings of many side characters. Some of them have turned into important characters! but some of them are just people you meet for a short little bit, see how the characters impact them, and then they go on their way. It's a bit old messy love letter to LA. I have to stop for a while until the book club catches up, but I'm really looking forward to it.

TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen by Stacey Abbott, Lorna Jowett - a bit dry, a bit slow, a bit academic. Not really breaking my brain.

What I'll Read Next

House of Leaves remains a slow but rewarding challenge.

I've had an anxious few weeks and I'm prone to overpurchasing when I am a bit frantic, so I have some new ebooks to read! Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eams, Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner, and Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher have all recently been added to my Kindle.

Work in Progress

It has been an great week for knitting! (and also purchasing yarn, rein it in, kite) I have been working on Scylla socks, pretty slipstitch pattern designed for variegated yarns. To no one's shock, I have ignored the scripted heel in the pattern and done a Fish Lips Kiss heel and just finished that on the second sock, so now I get to do the leg! I'm hoping to do these a bit longer in the leg because I feel the winter chill coming in around the ankles a bit too much.

Currently reading:

Still on The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (aka, Mo Dao Zu Shi) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, the source material for the Netflix Chinese drama, the Untamed.

I am finding some of the issues I had with the show (when I tried to watch it several times) persist. This is mostly tone issues - it's a bit jarring to read stuff where something truly ghastly and horrible is happening but the main characters reaction is minimal or nothing. There's also an odd thing of POV, where the author will shift into one character's mind for the duration of a few observations and then move on, and that exposition are often dumped after an event. Something will occur and then characters will react Very Strongly, and the story will have to pause for a paragraph or two and explain all the backstory. (Example - a haughty young man makes a sneering comment in public about his fiancee, who we have never met or seen mentioned before but [we are now informed] is a nice girl but nothing special and only engaged to this guy because their mothers were friends. Hearing him, two people absolutely lose their shit about his bad behavior - because it's their fucking sister! All of this information arrives after the fact. We have never seen this haughty young man before.)

Overall, I can see why fans went apeshit over this book and I'm also willing to bet that this novel works better in its original language. I keep wondering about the allusions I'm missing (which I know I am) and how I work to catch up. It's all going a bit better now that I'm taking notes.

Recently finished

Once & Future by spqr on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/35856907) - Reminiscent of The Accidental Warlord and His Pack by inexplicifics, (Links: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683661). This is a very charming story about Jaskier kissing an enchanted statue and it turning out to be a hot dude. Lovely fic, deeply uninterested in the violent edges of the Witcher universe. Just got posted this week!

The Witcher and the Lordling: Into the Mountains by Alex51324 (https://archiveofourown.org/series/2331386) - Technically, this second entry in this series is not entirely finished but it didn't impede my enjoyment at all. In an alternate universe where Witchers were not culled so much as leashed, Geralt and Jaskier break free and head out into the world. If you would enjoy reading a detailed breakdown of how to make a winter camp in the woods with nothing but a few tools and some knowhow, this is a great fic.

Up next:
Really I need to get back into House of Leaves before I completely forget the characters and the plot. I've also got the last two novellas of Neon Yang's Tensorate series up with my book club, so those will probably be the next on my list.

I still exist!

Life updates:
My garden this year is amazing and my peas and potatoes are causing me real joy. Also, if you have never enjoyed salad, try growing your own romaine lettuce in a pot, it's a-maz-ing how much better the fresh leaves are. My peas are hilarious and honestly I wonder if they are drunk.

Fic recs:
My love of Supernatural is ongoing, as if the Great Queer Rewatch, but I am realizing that longer fics are harder for me to read in that mode right now. I'm not sure why! But this rec set is mostly going to be light on Supernatural recs, and instead on shorter or fresher fandoms that have caught my eye recently.

Title: Cuckoo And Nest

Author: komodobits

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8423959
Author Summary: For a long time, Castiel thought that every earthly possession other than the immediately necessary was excess to requirement. But Dean – Dean who named his car, who keeps a photograph of his mother in his wallet, some thirty-plus years after her death, who still has the crumpled ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign with a sleeping pelican emblazoned on it from the Microtel outside of Roanoke where he first kissed Castiel, clumsy and unsure, under the unsteady fluorescence of an exhausted bathroom bulb – is sentimental.

It puzzles Castiel, where Dean draws the line between what is meaningful and what it is worthless.

Why I love it: This fic sits in a sweet spot for me, of a character in relationship where he feels like his place is contingent, not secure, and finding out that actually, no, he's totally beloved and his partner is just... kind of bad at communicating that. It's also got like, differing love languages! "Making Space For The Person You Love" is absolutely an underrated theme, and one that speaks very intimately to me, a person who is Messy TM in literal and figurative ways.

***

Title: Separate Ways by PepperPrints

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22339102

Author Summary: With Moff Gideon defeated and the Darksaber reclaimed, the rumours of newly named Mand'alor Din Djarin spread through the galaxy... along with the stories of the Child he carries with him. Determined to meet him, Luke Skywalker arrives on Mandalore -- but before he can get any closer, he has to prove himself worthy of Mandalorian standards.

Why I love it: [Summary Contain Spoilers for Season 1 of the Mandalorian] So, this fic was written BEFORE the second season, which makes the pairing of Luke Skywalker/Din Djarin even more inspired. This is a story about Luke, who is quite drained and injured by the events of the Original Star Wars Trilogy, find a new place and a new love in the backwaters world of a renew Mandalor community. It's a slow burn, but a sweet one, and, important to me, doesn't ask Din to leave behind his own religious beliefs to join Luke. It's sort of technically a Royal AU, but only in the same way that Leia Organa is both a general and a princess. I just... I like the idea of Luke finding a softer epilogue than he gets in canon, and this has that. Kidfic.

Supernatural is dead! Long live Supernatural!

At long last, Supernatural, the show, has passed from this mortal veil.

The canon is closed - nothing more can be added, nor can anything be taken away.

The last queer has been baited, the last woman murdered for stupid reasons.

The power to change these characters has passed from the hands of their creators, into the hands of the fans.

My last word to the writers: Thank you. But also, fuck you.

Let's have some fic recs!

***

Title: Nothing Is Left of My Voice in My Mouth by Iphys
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511255
Author Summary: It would be weird, he decides. Kissing Cas. Post 15x18. Dean imagines what it would be like.

Why I Love It: I helped beta this! - it is a tight and deadly and lifegiving addendum to the post- 15X18 body of work. The post date is important! This was written before the series ended, before 15X19. It is heartbreaking and lovely and everything Iphys writes is worth a read.

***

Title: Cinderwings by bendingsignpost
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12847041
Author Summary: Under the cover of a masquerade ball, Castiel has five nights to recover the key to his people's freedom. The world has changed greatly in the six centuries since their banishment into the void, but the task isn't impossible. Unfortunately for Castiel, this is going to involve talking to people - especially the Knight Prince who has taken an interest in Castiel and his "costume" wings.(Destiel Cinderella AU)

Why I Love It: This is a mostly-Castiel POV fic, set in a fantasy world where Dean is a knight prince and angels were accidentally banished to a void world hundreds of years ago. Castiel is anxious and kind and goal-oriented while also being a bit swept off his feet with Dean's attentions. He's lying by omission, on a mission to save his people, but he's also met this person who has the power to give him what he needs to do that - and who is also just, a wonderful person who he's immediately attracted to. It's wonderful and interesting and the magical system is twisty and there is also a LOT of great plot that adds depth to the characters. Iphys rec'd this to me while we were waiting for Supernatural to air its final episodes and it is a wonderful comforting fic that I also think it just a great take on Cinderella. It's got some heft to it- highly, highly recommend.

***

Title: r/supernatural by renrub
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626783
Author Summary:
whatbaby
[checks post history] uh… is this the m30s friend that everyone thought was your boyfriend?

LiketheGun79
Yes but that's not relevant

Dean's on Reddit.

Why I Love It: Supernatural is a world where the mundane world is portrayed as safe and ignorant of the monsters that could hurt them. To have knowledge of the monsters usually means trauma and suffering and sometimes death - almost all hunters in the show become hunters as revenge for the death of a family member. As a result of this, we get a lot of 'Hunters Idealizing Suburban Life,' and very little outside view of the Winchesters. This fic is 100% outside view of Dean's life, and everyone's just like, 'damn girl you live like this?" DEAN IS ON REDDIT. He is an INTERNET CRYPTID! He asks for family advice and people tell him to maybe consider whether his dad abused him! He asks about parenting! He asks about relationship advice! People think he's in the mob! They think that he should date Castiel! It's so good. It's so, so good.

***

Title: And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18083927
Author Summary: Only a very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet Jack Allen is just Kansas mechanic Dean Winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. Not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen.

Until, that is, a string of coincidences leads Dean to auditing a poetry course with one Dr. Castiel Novak. The professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome...and just so happens to be academia's foremost expert on the poetry of Jack Allen.

Why I Love It:This is a fic about poetry by someone who loves poetry, loves writing, loves the deep knowledge of the craft, and has NO PATIENCE AT ALL for assholes who want to gatekeep or make writing pretentious. It's so sweet and loving and about being a queer kid and how the kindness of a few people can be transformative when you have nothing to rely on. This fic was a gift. I learned so much about poetry, I think the characterization is spot on, the romance is slow and sweet and deft. Also, it includes a GREAT survey of the wonderful cast of minor characters that Supernatural has pulled together over the years, and it really does a wonderful job of giving them all personality and value and heft. I love Literature Professor Missouri Mosley, I love foster parent Sam Winchester... This fic was raft in a sea of sadness.

***

Title: Good One's Gonna Be by remmyme
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12127812
Author Summary: Castiel Novak receives a rather alarming text message from an unknown number, and what started as a simple misdial quickly turns into the greatest friendship Castiel has ever known. But Dean has many secrets, dangerous truths about the life he lives, and would like to tell Castiel exactly none of them.A (slightly) AU, (mostly) text fic, S3 fix-it romance (of sorts).

Why I Love It: This hits my delight in outsider POV's Supernatural, while also being a fun read, showing how Castiel, Normal Human, might encounter Dean Winchester (season 3 version), and how that might change his life. One thing I adore about this fic is that it takes Season Three and says, NOPE, FIXING THAT. This is the version of Dean who is facing down a year to live, and who never expected to fall in love over goddamn text with someone he's never actually met. But he does. And it's awful, because he expects to just be a scar in Castiel's life, a dead end that never got a chance, and Castiel is like - Yeah, fuck that.

***

Tiny note - I am also reading With Understanding by apokteino, but since I have not finished this truly massive fic, I am not going to rec it yet. It's 450K, and I have read 40% in 48 hours. God help me. It's so good.

Literally, actually, about the gloom - it's cold and drear as balls, kids.

Let's have some Real Life Updates!

Condo Flood Update:

After last week's flood, the neighbors have apologized and paid for the stuff that was destroyed when our bathroom storage closet flooded from the pipe they broke in their DIY home improvement project.

As I now understand it, they were ripping up the floorboards in the attic and removing the insulation under them because they were told, by the contractor, that was part of the upcoming insulation project. It really did sound to me like Ms. Upstairs tried to dicker the contractor out of the need for the work, but, guess what, we live in A Cold Place and you DO NOT want your heat rising thru your ceiling to cluster under the roof.

So, The Upstairses were trying to be frugal and do the insulation removal (and maybe installation?) by themselves to reduce the cost - which is showing me, again, that Ms. Upstairs is a bit of an idiot when it comes to thinking about short term costs for long term benefit. We are getting a Very Reduced Price on this project thru our state's Green Energy Home Improvements process - a price that was further because the whole building is doing the insulation update at the same time. So, instead of allowing the Trained and Insured Professionals handle this part of their job, they decided to remove the insulation themselves, which caused them to uproot the elderly, dead end pipe that was in their attic, which caused the leak. Their plumber has fixed it and removed the dead end pipe and all looks well.

So, with the Condo Trustees (aka, the four of us) having met, cordial relations have been restored, we have some things on our respective To Do Lists, and things are presumably fine for the upcoming Insulation Project (This Time With Fucking Professionals, Jeez).

The question remains unaddressed, tho: DID they have the right to be doing construction work in the attic without talking to the rest of the condo trustees (aka, US) first? My reading of the master deed suggest that they really, really did not - the boundaries of each unit's domain end at the upper finishing layer of the ceiling, and the attic seems like it falls under the unenumerated clause of the "Common Spaces and Facilities" clause of the deed - certainly the pipe they hit did, as well as the structures of the roof itself.

I did not bring this up at the meeting because, why make it contentious if you don't have to? and, now, understanding that they were pulling up insulation that they'd been discussing with the contractor as part of the approved insulation project, I felt like they might have a reasonable case to make that this would have been pre-approved as it were. But I don't feel quite easy about how to address it for next time, and I feel like a legal reading would side with my interpretation of the attic being part of the common spaces.

This is all made more complicated by the fact that there is an Improvements Clause, that allows each unit to improve spaces that are attached to only their unit "with the approval of 50% of the condo trustees", aka, with just that unit's owners approving it. Initially, this seems to have been written to allow people to enclose their porches, if they want to, but would potentially cause trouble on the issue of their DIY project. Ugh. Thus, I am opting to leave the whole thing alone unless they make another foray into Stupid Home Improvements.

Little Women:
I had a truly lovely Saturday of lazing about with my Husbeast. We went to see Little Women, which was entirely new to him. I cried, he cried, I crowed about predicting him crying, we sang the praises of Greta Gerwig and had a lovely dinner out afterwards.

On the film Little Women, I was moved and delighted. It was fasted paced and gorgeous. I have only vague memories of the book and slightly more structured memories of the 90's adaptation with Winona Rider. I thought Saoirse Ronan was an excellent, focused Jo, who felt Some Kind of Queer to me (Ace? Lesbian? Genderqueer? Unknown and unimportant to pin down!). I think that Gerwig successfully transferred the Great Romance of Jo's life to her writing, and its culmination in her published novel, and moved away from the idea that Jo's Great Romantic Focus should be Some Dude. Florence Pugh as Amy was deeply felt and wonderful and well rooted. Laurie the Dude was, as always, kind of a consolation prize of a person - if Amy had just won the lottery, I would have felt better for her. All in all, it felt like the very best of Fix-It Fic - rooted in love of the source material, and willing to break the letter of the adaptation to fit the spirit.

Church Stuff:
I have accepted a position on the board of my little church, which I have been gently prodded towards several times before. But this was a chaotic good move - it was rooted in a general oozing towards interest in being on the board that has come up over the last few years as the leadership of the board has gotten younger and queerer and better populated with people I know and respect. So, now I am on the board and will have some voice and voting to do.

Since it happened rather quickly, I am now playing catch-up with what the board meetings are actually going to be like - apparently dinner and conversation and prayer make up the first hour's business, which makes me vaguely infuriated but I suspect may be crucial in getting anything done. People are bad at handling their feelings - might as well give them space to do it.

The weirdness of this choice started immediately - my exist from the annual meeting at which I joined the board immediately ended with several people coming up and thanking me and talking to me in a way that I have scrupulously avoided. We'll see how that goes, but it might just be that this is part of the So Now You're Helping Organize A Church.

Knitting:
I have hit a metaphorical snag in my lace project - one section is Uncharted, with only written instructions, which I irritates me beyond all reason. Every other section of this lace sampler has a chart! They are BAD, but they EXIST. I have been able to find a chart online for this pattern and I will see if I can adapt it to the written instructions, but I am miffed.

My dishcloth project, aka, excuses to use up my cotton yarn, is producing scrubbies for family now, so it's relaxing and generally not too challenging.

Fannish and Bookish Updates

I have been stuck on Soldier's Heart by Alex51234 as my reading for a while now - the updates are regular and good, so it's not that the author's done anything to me on that front! But I am just finding the headspace the writing puts me in so entrancing that I find it hard to break away from it. I end up reading chapters multiple times, and I'm debating starting the fic over to read it from the top. But I think I should hold out on that for the last couple of chapters, so I get to finish the fic with it fresh in my mind.

I have also been reading A Private Reason for This by Femme (femmequixotic) which might make it into a rec list one of these days. I'm having trouble finishing it because I keep getting to parts where a character (and they are well done characters!) has a thought about themselves that is a little Too Vulnerable and I feel I have to look away in victorian prudishness at the humanness on display. I don't think of myself as being in Harry Potter fandom, so I'm honestly really enjoying this primarily as a detective story, but some of the elements of a well plotted crime tv series that I love just fall flat for me on the page. I don't read detective novels really at all.

Specifically, the Richard Armitage bullshit. (I even rewatched some of the first two seasons of the goddawful 2006ish BBC Robin Hood, where time periods are a joke and the points don't matter!)

I'll cut here for spoilers that are at least a decade old now, just in case you care, and also so I don't subject you to the inevitable weirdness of my Brain on A Fictional Dude Crush.
( Read more... )

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177950
Fandom: Good Omens (TV and Book)
Pairing: Gen Aziraphale/Crowley
Author Summary: As soon as Aubrey Thyme, psychotherapist, had opened her office door and seen her new client, Anthony J. Crowley, sitting in her waiting area, she was observing and assessing him. At first glance, she paid attention to the following:

--His clothing was expensive and stylish;

--He wore very strange but noticeable cologne;

--His relationship to the seat he occupied could only, very loosely, be described as “sitting;”

--He looked angry;

--He was wearing sunglasses.

What Aubrey Thyme, a professional, thought, upon first seeing her new client was: you’re going to be a fun one, aren’t you?
Why I love it: Aubrey Thyme is the best therapist I have ever seen. The fic takes therapy SERIOUSLY, and does the work of understanding it, and shows how it can work and how it can fail and how to do it will and how to make mistakes and fix them. Crowley so perfectly in canon, and so snarky and hilarious and fun to watch, and Aubrey's affection for him just shines thru in the same way she will not permit him get away with his bullshit. Even a little. It's a joy to read along with this work that starts as a character study of Crowley and ends with the creation of this thoughtful, joyfully spiteful, determined human being. This story is a gem, download it immediately if you can't read it now in case it falls off the face of the earth.

Warnings: Some discussion of suicide, a view of the divine in keeping with Good Omens, some abuse of alcohol, detailed discussion of therapy and trauma

Xenoethnography is a series by Therrae (Dasha_mte)
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458
Fandom: Transformers
Pairing: None, Optimus Prime/OFC if you reeaaaaaaaally wanted to squint

Why I love it: I have talked about this series before, it's continuining, it's still a great outsider POV on the Transformers that blends multiple approaches to canon and takes the alien part of alien space robots really seriously. I think this is one of the best continuing series I am watching grow, and I cannot tell you enough that it's worth a read.

I Chose You by Coleen561
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3872953
Fandom: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Pairing:Marian/ Guy of Gisbourne

Why I love it: I... I don't recommend this tv series. I don't. This fic is a fixit AU that diverges before the end of season 1. Guy avoids most of his more evil deeds and gets a backstory that makes him more reasonable and sympathetic but not a good person. Robin is as annoying as he is in the series. Marian is slightly better? I have enjoyed this fic a great deal, but I don't feel super great about the source material and I recommend this only with the understanding that you should watch the show by fastforwarding to the bits where Richard Armitage is on screen.

Forget Me Not by allyss
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3886780
Fandom: Hobbit films
Pairing: Fíli/Sigrid
Author's Notes: It’s a marriage of convenience, a way to forever strengthen the bond between the Dwarves of Erebor and the people of Dale. Or so Sigrid tells herself.
Why I love it: So, it's the usual fixit story of "Thorin and his nephews all survive the Battle of Five Armies" with some added thoughts on the politics of how the people of Laketown would actually feel about some randos showing up and stirring up trouble with the local dragon. Sigrid is Bard the Bowman's daughter, now a princess and in a arranged marriage with Fili, heir to the throne, feeling her way thru the morass of politics and distrust amongst her people and the dwarves while also figuring out if just maybe she can actually fall in love with her husband. This fic was a total surprise to me and it has completely sold me on this relationship and this pairing and I want it to be twice as long. I love it

Your New Twin Sized Bed by out_there
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89396
Fandom: Prison Break
Pairing: Alexander Mahone/Michael Scofield/Sara Tancredi
Author's Notes: Alex takes a two bedroom apartment that's close to his new office. The main bedroom is serviceably large, but it seems too big after months spent in a cabin, feels too empty after sharing a small boat with Michael and Sara, so Alex buys a large desk and makes it a study. The second room is tiny, but it fits a twin sized bed and a bedside table.
Why I love it: So, Prison Break had four seasons from 2005-2008, and ended with a death that got undone in the SURPRISE! 2017 fifth season reboot. I have not seen the fifth season, this fic has not seen the fifth season, and I legit will never see the fifth season. This fic takes three characters past the end of the fourth season of the show in a slightly different direction - as a V shaped poly triad, that has broken up. Alex Mahone is a ruthless investigator and killer and he is also more loyal to his need to protect the people loves than he is willing to risk them. So, when he thinks he's a risk to the people he loves? He leaves. And they follow. And it's just a bulletproof kink for me, to have a character think that they are less loved, less important, that they won't be missed, and then to be proven WRONG. And this fic does that. It also feels like a quick dip into a way that fanfic used to be, somehow, shorter and a little willing to indulge in character descriptions in a way that I think tumblr might drain out of modern fic? But I like all of it and I don't think it is a flaw.

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