auroracloud | Jun. 27th, 2019

I wanted to do the reading meme yesterday but I didn't have the required cooperation of the brain, so I'm doing it today.

What I've read recently

The last thing I finished was Tell It To The Bees by Fiona Shaw, which was really wonderful. I picked it up from the e-library by chance and turned out to love it. Before that, I've recently finished a few other books I want to mention, because I haven't done this meme for a few weeks. I finally finished This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, which has been reading in the long time, because I don't always have the headspace for reading about climate change and climate politics, but it's really great, important and also empowering.

I also read one of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novella, P. Djèlí Clark's The Black God's Drums, which I loved very much and I want to read a whole book series from that universe, thank you very much. And I finally got around to reading Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and oh my stars that was great, even if it took me some time to figure out well enough what was going on so that I could just focus on reading the story. But I gather that's a rather common experience.

What I'm reading now

I've been reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik for a while now. I really like it, though every now and then I need to read something else, either because I'm too worried about the main characters, or because the book is just thick and heavy physically. I do expect I'll be done with it fairly soon, once I have the right headspace to continue.

For lighter reading, both physically and mentally, I started book #2 of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, A Local Habitation. Really enjoying it, and don't expect to take long with it.

In the non-fiction front, I've got my usual novel research books, but I also started reading Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger, because it sounded like something I wanted to read, and I was able to get the e-book from the library. It's great so far.

What I plan to read next

I'm really starting to feel the need to read some fiction in my own language dammit. I borrowed a couple of books to that effect from the library as I went there today (and filled my backpack with books, I should never be allowed into public libraries). Other than that, once I've finished Spinning Silver, I expect to read Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera, or the Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, whichever appeals to me more at the moment. Space Opera is a Hugo finalist for the best novel (as is Spinning Silver), and I need to read Raven Stratagem before I can read the third book in the series, which is also a best novel finalist. (Plus, the whole series is a Best Series finalist.) But I totally would want to read them both soon anyway.

And I do expect to read more October Daye in the near future, as well.

Since we're nearing the end of the month:

carenejeans has offered to host July, is that still on? And has anyone offered for August, or would someone like to offer at this point? Of course we can find the host for August during July, too, but it's always nice if we can be sorted out a bit in advance, so thought I'd ask already.

In other news: why do fire alarms always start telling you their batteries are out when it's night and you're sleeping? I'm not sure mine have ever started that in the daytime. (And before you tell me I'm just more likely to hear it during the night, I spend a lot of time at home, and my favourite pastime is reading books and typing things at a computer without any background music or suchlike.

Well, mine started doing it around 5 am, which I'll admit is technically morning, but trust me, I've got a few hours of preferred sleeping time left after that. But perhaps because it at least wasn't in the middle of the night, I figured out quickly what it was (if I'm very drowsy it can take me a while) and removed the batteries so it stopped beeping. And I was even able to find the correct batteries in the supermarket, that is after I wandered around exploring all the other parts of the non-food department.

My headspace is getting better, thankfully. I should go to sleep, but I've got a bread baking in the oven and need to wait until it's done. I also baked the 3-ingredient raisin biscuits while I was waiting for the bread to rise. The ones that are made of mashed banana, oatmeal, and raisins, so it's practically a health food, but still yummy if you like those three things, which I do. I made a batch of nine, and ate three of them already.

In other happy news today, I got a comment on one of my less read ficlets (the most recent "Two and Jamie being super clingy and that's pretty much it" type of fic) that said "*a million extra kudos*". Should I consider it my most kudos-ed fic now? *g* At any rate, I'm happy some people like my cuddly fluff.

Today's Writing

I didn't really find the inspiration to work on anything new, or anything at all with some sort of deadline, but I managed to finish editing one of my just-because fics, which I rather like. I just need to get someone to look it over for any non-English bits or other things that need fixing, and then I can post it. It would be nice to have something happening for something I'm supposed to be writing, but actually finishing any of my fics in process is a good thing!

I also borrowed a couple of books from the library which might be useful for my novel, and one of them is really big and has lots of pictures in it.

Tally

( Days 1-21 under the cut )

Day 22:

alexcat,

alexseanchai,

auroracloud,

carenejeans,

cassini,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

sierranovembr,

silveradept,

st_aurafina,

sylvanwitch,

talkingtothesky,