Reading

Entry tags:

type: promotion: sale

Sale Promotion: Cozy the Day Away (Oct 11-12)

Cozy the Day Away, a flash sale for Cozy Fantasy books, is running again for two days this weekend, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th October.

This time, there are more than 150 books in the sale, with many new authors (and new titles from authors who were in previous sales.)

The sale includes ebooks, paperbacks, audiobooks and bundles.

A strong focus on diversity: LGBTQIA+, neurodiversity, global majority/PoC characters, mental and physical disabilities, all represented.

A wide variety of genres, including romantasy, cozy mysteries, paranormal and urban fantasy and action/adventure.

Many ebooks are 99p/99c (or even free) and there are steep discounts on other formats.

Find out more and access the list of books (only visible this weekend) at https://cozyfantasysale.promisepress.org/

Entry tags:

Just Create - Pocket Edition

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky.

Entry tags:

Book review: Sharp Objects

Title: Sharp Objects
Author: Gillian Flynn
Genre: Fiction, murder mystery, crime, thriller

I picked this out of the free book box and October seemed like a good time to buckle down with a gruesome murder mystery, so I started into Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (if you recognize her name, it's probably because she also wrote Gone Girl). This book is about a newspaper reporter, Camille, who returns to her tiny, rural Midwest hometown of Wind Gap to investigate a missing girl.

What to say about this one? I'm struggling. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible. I was engaged enough to finish it, but I also dropped it back in the free book box right after finishing it. I don't feel like I wasted my time, but I also don't feel inspired to read more of Flynn's work.

The book definitely goes hard on portraying women with capital I Issues, as well as the effects of generational trauma, be it from bad parenting, mental health problems, or misogyny. The toxicity of life in a small town is also a strong element, and the claustrophobia the protagonist Camille feels being back there, seeing all these teenage girls who seem doomed to follow the same dour, unhappy paths their predecessors did. The misery that these unhappy girls and women inflict on each other, perhaps in absence of a healthier outlet, also features prominently and heartbreakingly.

Camille herself I didn't care for. She's aggravatingly passive for most of the book and her own emotional distance (as well as perhaps the writing) keep the reader at arms' length from everything that's happening. Hated her love interest too; exactly the kind of arrogant, presumptuous type I can't stand. I kept hoping she'd tell him to fuck off, but regrettably she found him charming.

Flynn's writing style was fine, although I didn't always love her choppy sentences.

The crimes in the book are quite dark, but held up against the smaller instances of violence, physical and emotional, being perpetrated in this small town day after day, the reader is left to wonder how much difference there really is between them.

Flynn shows well how the toxicity of Wind Gap impacted Camille, but I felt that not enough attention was paid to Amma, and why she alone among the family turned to such glee over violence and cruelty as an outlet for her trauma. This is one colossally fucked-up 13-year-old and I think the narrative would have benefited from more time in her head.

On the whole: idk. It was fine? Flynn obviously had things to say about life as a girl in a small town, and I think she said a lot of that effectively, but as for the enjoyability of the book? Eh.

Entry tags:

Recent Reading: Sharp Objects

I picked this out of the free book box and October seemed like a good time to buckle down with a gruesome murder mystery, so I started into Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (if you recognize her name, it's probably because she also wrote Gone Girl). This book is about a newspaper reporter, Camille, who returns to her tiny, rural Midwest hometown of Wind Gap to investigate a missing girl.

What to say about this one? I'm struggling. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible. I was engaged enough to finish it, but I also dropped it back in the free book box right after finishing it. I don't feel like I wasted my time, but I also don't feel inspired to read more of Flynn's work.

The book definitely goes hard on portraying women with capital I Issues, as well as the effects of generational trauma, be it from bad parenting, mental health problems, or misogyny. The toxicity of life in a small town is also a strong element, and the claustrophobia the protagonist Camille feels being back there, seeing all these teenage girls who seem doomed to follow the same dour, unhappy paths their predecessors did. The misery that these unhappy girls and women inflict on each other, perhaps in absence of a healthier outlet, also features prominently and heartbreakingly.

Camille herself I didn't care for. She's aggravatingly passive for most of the book and her own emotional distance (as well as perhaps the writing) keep the reader at arms' length from everything that's happening. Hated her love interest too; exactly the kind of arrogant, presumptuous type I can't stand. I kept hoping she'd tell him to fuck off, but regrettably she found him charming.

Flynn's writing style was fine, although I didn't always love her choppy sentences.

The crimes in the book are quite dark, but held up against the smaller instances of violence, physical and emotional, being perpetrated in this small town day after day, the reader is left to wonder how much difference there really is between them.

Flynn shows well how the toxicity of Wind Gap impacted Camille, but I felt that not enough attention was paid to Amma, and why she alone among the family turned to such glee over violence and cruelty as an outlet for her trauma. This is one colossally fucked-up 13-year-old and I think the narrative would have benefited from more time in her head.

On the whole: idk. It was fine? Flynn obviously had things to say about life as a girl in a small town, and I think she said a lot of that effectively, but as for the enjoyability of the book? Eh.

[ SECRET POST #6853 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6853 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #978.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[Review]: Know My Name

Title: Know My Name
Author: Chanel Miller
Genre: Memoir
Content warning: Sexual assault

“I am a victim, I have no qualms with this word, only with the idea that it is all that I am.”

A memoir by Chanel Miller, whom you may know as Emily Doe from her famous victim statement in 2016 after her assailant, Brock Turner, was sentenced to 6 months in jail. In 2019, Miller revealed her identity along with a new book about her sexual assault, the lasting trauma from it, her fight for justice, and her ongoing recovery.

This is an excellent memoir, starting from the day Miller was assaulted and the morning she woke up without any memories of the assault to the world's responses to her victim statement that went viral and the changes in the judiciary system. Like in the victim statement, Miller did not shy away from sharing vulnerable moments, such as her depression isolating her from family and friends, but also gradually learning how to heal through friends, therapy, and new hobbies.

( Review )

Behold! My neighborhood's scariest tree!

( Nomnomnom )

*************************

( Read more... )

Friday 10/10/2025

1) It was a sh*t day at work yesterday, but I got great support from my colleagues.

2) a free afternoon today and I'm going on a lunchdate with hubby (who has the entire day off)

3) we're getting the front window of our car fixed. Luckily we managed to get a quick appointment :-)

[ SECRET POST #6852 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6852 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 07 secrets from Secret Submission Post #978.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

My laundry is trying to kill me

First, when I was pulling up my panties my thumbnail got stuck somehow on the cotton and ended up half ripped off - ouch! - in what is both the dumbest and most painful injury ever. Then the next day I managed to slip on some clothing on the floor and fall flat down on my face. Fortunately, I landed on my laundry, but still, I can take a hint. My own laundry wants me dead.

(I mentioned this to Jenn and she suggested that if I was wearing my panties they weren't laundry but simply clothing, but this obviously arrant nonsense. They weren't on my body yet, they were just halfway up my thighs, so they were still at least liminally laundry, caught in that weird spot of paradox in between Schrodinger's cat and Xeno's arrow. Also, the salient feature is that they were trying to kill me, not what arbitrary category they fall into while they do so!)

*************************

( Read more... )

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 4

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 4 by Grrr

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.

( Read more... )

Thursday 09/10/2025

1) Went to a sort of garden fair this morning

2) Discovered a new restaurant with my dad and had a yummy lunch

3) Visit of my aunt and uncle

Villains Are Destined to Die

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1 by Gwon Gyeoeul

The original novel.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

Health (good news)

My immunotherapy infusion yesterday may have been my last!! I have a scan on Monday that will probably say that. Belovedest celebrated by cracking into the Strategic Redpop Reserve. This will mean much more leeway to leave town and such.

Colonoscopy results: mostly normal, one pre (not sure how many pre-s to put here) cancerous "lesion", and all of them removed. Repeat in two years, this time with Extended Prep. (My understanding of "lesion" and the medical definition may not align entirely well.)

Started the new injectable after the colonoscopy. I can definitely feel the impact. It remains to be seen exactly what kind. One of my friends has a new injectable too; she's getting some sinus clearance from it. Of all the random effects.

After the infusion, Belovedest and I trekked up-city to pick up a package for

alexseanchai. All Pampered Chef, and a high proportion of likely goodies vs. likely duds. There were some varying scrub brushes. The utensil/knife scrub brush looks like dentures that are actually a scrub brush, but I can see that coming in handy. There was also a quarter-sheet pan with two eighth-sheet pans. And then we trekked back down when Belovedest realized they'd left their tablet at the cancer center. Freakin' ADHD. We're on The Assassins of Thasalon in our progress through Penric.

I have a smallish makeup hobby. Part of that is sometimes going all Weird Barbie on my face with eyeliner or whatever. Tonight I've convinced myself (via iridescent green eyeliner) that some kind of moon phase forehead jewelry might really slap.

Entry tags:

[Book Review] My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

Title: My Darling Dreadful Thing
Author: Johanna van Veen
Genre: gothic horror

I'd read and enjoyed van Veen's Blood on Her Tongue earlier this year and am happy to say that I enjoyed her first novel, My Darling Dreadful Thing even more! Both novels are billed as saphhic gothic horror, and both live up to that label, but both novels also begin with rather unfortunate author's notes. Notes warning the reader that they have picked up a gothic horror novel and that depiction does not equal endorsement and there are Dark Themes Afoot and blah blah blah, just the sort of thing that I understand the reasoning behind because I know what the (mostly online) discourse is like, but which read rather poorly (less simple content warnings and more "I have to cover my ass so internet pitchforks are not aimed at it," a kind of defensiveness which sometimes bleeds into--and spoils--an author's prose) and which very nearly put me off reading Blood on Her Tongue altogether; not because I was worried about the content, but because I suspected the writing to reflect that same defensiveness (and to therefore suck).

Luckily I was very wrong! This also allowed me to jump right into My Darling Dreadful Thing knowing that van Veen's writing would deliver, and it does so beautifully.

My Darling is set in the Netherlands in the 1950s and follows Roos, a young woman subject to the whims of her cruel guardian, Mama, who has forced Roos to perform alongside her in scores of seances, wherein Roos acts as medium, faking one possession after another.

Except that Roos can actually see spirits. Or at least one spirit, to be exact: her sole companion Ruth, who has haunted her since childhood. Ruth has remained the only spirit that Roos has ever encountered right up until Mama arranges a seance with well-off once-promising pianist Agnes Knoop, who has just lost her dear husband tragically, and who is haunted by a spirit of her own.

( read more )

But overall, the writing is solid, the gothic horror is there, bog bodies are cool, the characters were great (even the terrible ones; they were all the fun-to-hate kind), and YES there is a sapphic romance in this one and YES it is explicit. (Yuri fans rejoice!) If you're looking for something spooky (but not TOO spooky) to read this spooky season, then My Darling Dreadful Thing is certainly worth picking up.

[ SECRET POST #6851 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6851 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 15 secrets from Secret Submission Post #978.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Entry tags:

Review: It Will be Hard graphic/visual novel

Itch.io is an indie games storefront that has also become a haven for indie self-published writing, especially for trans, nonbinary and other marginalised writers. The site is not without its drama, but that's not the point of this review.

I recently worked my way through the Curated Collections About LGBTQIA list which has hundreds of games, visual novels, short stories, books and zines.

There were a few works that really shone for me. These are all also available to download for free, with an option to pay. I like to come back and spend money on works that I really enjoy, like these.

It Will Be Hard by Art and story by Hien Pham, codes by Amos Wolfe
Genre: Fantasy, romance

Description: It Will Be Hard is an award-winning interactive graphic novel telling the story of Arthur and Harold - two men, with two polar opposite sexualities, working together toward one mutually fulfilling relationship.

With queer people of colour at its center, the gentle, optimistic, and optionally erotic story touches upon gray-asexuality, polyamory, and the importance of communication between partners.

It Will Be Hard is presented as a digital comic with light choose-your-own adventure mechanics the player can use to create their own reading canon. The story stays linear, but the branching moments and memories explored go deeper into the two protagonists’ pasts and characters.

Review: This is a beautifully written and illustrated work, exploring polyamory in a fantasy setting that both mirrors and nurtures this relationship. The format itself embraces choice and freedom - you can enjoy the story as a visual novel with branching moments (that don't affect he plot) or a graphic novel, either with or without a spicy scene. I feel like this approach supports the messages in the book, that you can enjoy the story in whatever way works best for you.

I love the soft and cozy vibe of the characters, and their diversity. They all look like real, organic people and come in all shapes and sizes. There's even people with visible disability using utterly adorable fantasy animals to get around.

Warmth and light just radiates through the art. The whole story feels like a warm hug. It's very much a character piece, with the plot being secondary to that, but the characters are believeable and fallible. The ending is not a happily ever after but is hopeful for the future.

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

It's Wednesday! What are you reading?

Entry tags:

Why to Watch Julia

Given that WGBH is now trying to raise an enormous amount to keep the station running, I thought it would be a good time to urge others to watch a show that features its early days. At least as the show "Julia" presents it, WGBH is the public television station that she made a success.

What Sorts of Things Happen in This Show?

Season 1 begins with Julia Child having published her first cookbook and then moving to Boston because her husband was pressured into retirement. However it soon becomes clear that Julia's life is about to start a second phase, and she has to maneuver a great many people into helping her achieve her goals.

In this, she has a co-conspirator, best friend Avis, and the brave and dogged Alice at WGBH who manages to get Julia onto a show as a guest and eventually into her own show. Julia also has the unwavering and in-person support of her editor, Judith Jones, who has to fight her own battles in her support for a less than highbrow book series.

The first season gives us a variety of looks at what life is like for even the educated and upper middle class women who are in Julia's circle (past and present) in a time where women are still very much struggling for financial independence and job opportunities. Julia's own role as a role model for women gets questioned at various points, even as the show makes clear throughout how easily and often women's contributions are erased or overlooked.

The tone of the show is clearly established as walking a line between being humorous and uplifting, and presenting more serious issues with a light touch. ( Read more... )

The Elevator Pitch

While food certainly is present in the show (each episode is titled for a dish), the show wants to both present the force of nature that was Julia Child, as well as how she created a large crowd of supporters from workmates to viewers. Her story also reflects challenges women faced in finding respect while pursuing their dreams in the mid 20th century. It ends up reminding me most of a less talky Gilmore Girls which focused on Stars Hollow.

Julia can currently be viewed via HBO Max in the U.S.

Additional Information:
• IMDB
• Wikipedia

Wednesday 08/10/2025

1) a yum salad for lunch

2) reading during lunch break

3) a nice hot shower this evening