"Mr. Rowl" so far
Jan. 3rd, 2026 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muccamukkI needed a novel to round out my holiday reading, so I picked up "Mr. Rowl" by D.K. Broster (who wrote part of the Gay Jacobite Extended Universe). I'd read a couple reviews, but they were long enough ago that I remembered the following:
1. There are no gay Jacobites.
2. Because it's set during the Napoleonic War.
3. One of the characters (Raoul des Sablière) is a French officer who is a prisoner of war in England.
4. Everyone is very worried about their honour.
5. Readers of my acquaintance ship the French prisoner with an English dude.
6. The ladies are cool.
So I go into the book and immediately meet Raoul, and start looking for whoever I'm supposed to ship him with.
I meet Sir Francis, who is a handsome English Lord who Does Not Like Raoul. This seems like it's probably who I'm supposed to ship.
Except! Sir Francis is immediately a controlling dick to his fiancée. I have pretty generous shipping goggles, when need be, but I don't think anyone could read Sir Francis as being a controlling dick because he wants to be with Raoul. He's just a dick. He is very worried about his honour, though, so it did seem somewhat likely that he might still be the one.
No, one character being a dick has not slowed fandom down before. But isn't usually 100% my thing. So then I was feeling a little sad that I wasn't going to be into the pairing my friends like.
However, as I got farther into the book, and Sir Francis became even more of a dick, I was like, "This is going to be one hell of a redemption arc!" But also doubt.jpg. Also, also, wow, it's funny to have mostly aligned ships with someone, then have them be ride or die for something that's rapidly turning into a NOTP for me.
Finally, I broke and looked at AO3, and figured out I'm supposed to ship Raoul with some guy who has not yet showed up, as of 20% of the novel.
Which is a relief. Because I quite like Raoul, even if he has the Broster characteristic of being slightly silly about his honour, and he deserves better than Sir Francis, who is a dick.
1. There are no gay Jacobites.
2. Because it's set during the Napoleonic War.
3. One of the characters (Raoul des Sablière) is a French officer who is a prisoner of war in England.
4. Everyone is very worried about their honour.
5. Readers of my acquaintance ship the French prisoner with an English dude.
6. The ladies are cool.
So I go into the book and immediately meet Raoul, and start looking for whoever I'm supposed to ship him with.
I meet Sir Francis, who is a handsome English Lord who Does Not Like Raoul. This seems like it's probably who I'm supposed to ship.
Except! Sir Francis is immediately a controlling dick to his fiancée. I have pretty generous shipping goggles, when need be, but I don't think anyone could read Sir Francis as being a controlling dick because he wants to be with Raoul. He's just a dick. He is very worried about his honour, though, so it did seem somewhat likely that he might still be the one.
No, one character being a dick has not slowed fandom down before. But isn't usually 100% my thing. So then I was feeling a little sad that I wasn't going to be into the pairing my friends like.
However, as I got farther into the book, and Sir Francis became even more of a dick, I was like, "This is going to be one hell of a redemption arc!" But also doubt.jpg. Also, also, wow, it's funny to have mostly aligned ships with someone, then have them be ride or die for something that's rapidly turning into a NOTP for me.
Finally, I broke and looked at AO3, and figured out I'm supposed to ship Raoul with some guy who has not yet showed up, as of 20% of the novel.
Which is a relief. Because I quite like Raoul, even if he has the Broster characteristic of being slightly silly about his honour, and he deserves better than Sir Francis, who is a dick.
Weekly Reading
Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:25 pmtorachanRecently Finished
Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For
This is an Audible original adaptation of the early comic strips. It has an all star cast including Jane Lynch and Roxanne Gay, and I felt like the audio play format worked really well for it. It's a lot of fun and at only three hours, it's a good listen when you want to finish up something quick. It's also free if you have an Audible subscription.
The Labyrinth House Murders
This had an interesting framing, but overall felt weaker than the other two books in the series that I've read so far.
Wake Me After the Apocalypse
YA post-apocalyptic story about a girl who is one of the few people chosen to go into cryosleep and be awakened in two hundred years when a massive asteroid is predicted to hit earth and wipe out all life. But when she wakes up, she finds that a cave-in in their underground bunker has damaged all the other tanks near hers and completely blocked off the rest, so she's all alone. This sounded cool! It reminded me a bit of 7 Seeds. But there were too many flashback chapters in the first half to boring stuff about her falling in love with a boy in her group. If I am reading a post-apocalypse story I want the focus to be post apocalypse. Once the flashback chapters disappeared and the focus stayed on the future, it was more interesting, but still a bit disappointing. And this is the beginning of a trilogy, but the second book focuses on a different character in a different bunker, and from a review I saw, 99% of the book is pre-apocalypse, making it even less interesting. Then the third book has the two protagonists meeting and dealing with people from a third bunker, but the reviews made it sound like it wouldn't really be up my alley, so I'm not going to continue the series.
Silent Sister
A teenager wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the past few days and is told that she was found injured by the side of the road and her sister is missing. The story is told in alternating past and present chapters telling the story of the days leading up to the incident in the missing sister's POV and in the remaining sister's POV, the quest to find out what happened to her and her sister. ( spoilers for something that should be no surprise to anyone who starts reading this book ) The story itself was fine, but the gimmick just felt annoying.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
This took me three and a half months to read but I finally finished it! It was very interesting, but also had a lot of in-depth detail about each head of the CIA that was a little on the boring side, which made it a slower read for me. But I went into this knowing virtually nothing about the CIA. It was never really touched on in school (most of my history classes ended after WWII) and in terms of popular culture I just had a vague "these guys are spies" association. As an adult, I osmosed that the CIA was responsible for a lot of shitty stuff around the world, but never really got into the details. So this was good for that! It turns out that the shittiness was not an exception, and that's pretty much all they did, but what most surprised me is that from the CIA's inception, these guys were pretty much Trump regime level incompetent. No one had any idea of what they were doing, and any successes they had were pretty much flukes. Anyway, I rated it a three due to the boringness of parts of it, but it really was a good overview and I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for something like that.
My Home Hero vol. 23-24
2025 Reading Roundup
For the third year in a row, I finished one book* per day, so I read a total of 365 books this year. That seems to be working well for me, so while I set my GR goal at 320 to give myself some leeway, I will be aiming for a book a day this year as well.
*I count manga, comics, audiobooks, and short stories along with full-length novels and non-fiction.
This year's tally of the categories I keep track of:
Comics: 58
Manga: 144
Adult fiction: 106
Young Adult: 9
Middle Grade: 31
Non-fiction: 17
Of those, 6 were short stories and 55 were audiobooks.
I read exactly the same number of non-fiction books as last year, but more adult fiction and middle grade and much less YA, as I am finding YA more and more annoying these days.
The combined total of manga and comics is less this year as well, and the audiobook count higher.
There were 10 rereads, all of which were comics or manga, and the reason for rereading was to refresh my memory in order to read a new volume in the series. (Two of them were for stuff I am scanlating, and I always count it as a reread when I finish translating a full volume.)
72 books were added to my to-read list before 2025, which is more than in past year (though not by a ton). The majority of manga and comics I don't add to my to-read list before reading, though, and same with the short stories, so as percentage of full length books, that's 46% coming from the to-read list, so that's pretty good!
I've been going through my to-read list recently and doing some pruning, since some stuff has been on there for almost ten years, and my tastes have changed, plus there are a lot of books that I added (especially YA stuff) because it was like "ooh, a [insert minority] character!" when that was more rare, and the plot or genre isn't really my thing, or I've already read several variations on the same theme by now and don't need another.
If you're curious to see the full list of what I read last year, this should take you to my 2025 tag on Goodreads.
Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For
This is an Audible original adaptation of the early comic strips. It has an all star cast including Jane Lynch and Roxanne Gay, and I felt like the audio play format worked really well for it. It's a lot of fun and at only three hours, it's a good listen when you want to finish up something quick. It's also free if you have an Audible subscription.
The Labyrinth House Murders
This had an interesting framing, but overall felt weaker than the other two books in the series that I've read so far.
Wake Me After the Apocalypse
YA post-apocalyptic story about a girl who is one of the few people chosen to go into cryosleep and be awakened in two hundred years when a massive asteroid is predicted to hit earth and wipe out all life. But when she wakes up, she finds that a cave-in in their underground bunker has damaged all the other tanks near hers and completely blocked off the rest, so she's all alone. This sounded cool! It reminded me a bit of 7 Seeds. But there were too many flashback chapters in the first half to boring stuff about her falling in love with a boy in her group. If I am reading a post-apocalypse story I want the focus to be post apocalypse. Once the flashback chapters disappeared and the focus stayed on the future, it was more interesting, but still a bit disappointing. And this is the beginning of a trilogy, but the second book focuses on a different character in a different bunker, and from a review I saw, 99% of the book is pre-apocalypse, making it even less interesting. Then the third book has the two protagonists meeting and dealing with people from a third bunker, but the reviews made it sound like it wouldn't really be up my alley, so I'm not going to continue the series.
Silent Sister
A teenager wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the past few days and is told that she was found injured by the side of the road and her sister is missing. The story is told in alternating past and present chapters telling the story of the days leading up to the incident in the missing sister's POV and in the remaining sister's POV, the quest to find out what happened to her and her sister. ( spoilers for something that should be no surprise to anyone who starts reading this book ) The story itself was fine, but the gimmick just felt annoying.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
This took me three and a half months to read but I finally finished it! It was very interesting, but also had a lot of in-depth detail about each head of the CIA that was a little on the boring side, which made it a slower read for me. But I went into this knowing virtually nothing about the CIA. It was never really touched on in school (most of my history classes ended after WWII) and in terms of popular culture I just had a vague "these guys are spies" association. As an adult, I osmosed that the CIA was responsible for a lot of shitty stuff around the world, but never really got into the details. So this was good for that! It turns out that the shittiness was not an exception, and that's pretty much all they did, but what most surprised me is that from the CIA's inception, these guys were pretty much Trump regime level incompetent. No one had any idea of what they were doing, and any successes they had were pretty much flukes. Anyway, I rated it a three due to the boringness of parts of it, but it really was a good overview and I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for something like that.
My Home Hero vol. 23-24
2025 Reading Roundup
For the third year in a row, I finished one book* per day, so I read a total of 365 books this year. That seems to be working well for me, so while I set my GR goal at 320 to give myself some leeway, I will be aiming for a book a day this year as well.
*I count manga, comics, audiobooks, and short stories along with full-length novels and non-fiction.
This year's tally of the categories I keep track of:
Comics: 58
Manga: 144
Adult fiction: 106
Young Adult: 9
Middle Grade: 31
Non-fiction: 17
Of those, 6 were short stories and 55 were audiobooks.
I read exactly the same number of non-fiction books as last year, but more adult fiction and middle grade and much less YA, as I am finding YA more and more annoying these days.
The combined total of manga and comics is less this year as well, and the audiobook count higher.
There were 10 rereads, all of which were comics or manga, and the reason for rereading was to refresh my memory in order to read a new volume in the series. (Two of them were for stuff I am scanlating, and I always count it as a reread when I finish translating a full volume.)
72 books were added to my to-read list before 2025, which is more than in past year (though not by a ton). The majority of manga and comics I don't add to my to-read list before reading, though, and same with the short stories, so as percentage of full length books, that's 46% coming from the to-read list, so that's pretty good!
I've been going through my to-read list recently and doing some pruning, since some stuff has been on there for almost ten years, and my tastes have changed, plus there are a lot of books that I added (especially YA stuff) because it was like "ooh, a [insert minority] character!" when that was more rare, and the plot or genre isn't really my thing, or I've already read several variations on the same theme by now and don't need another.
If you're curious to see the full list of what I read last year, this should take you to my 2025 tag on Goodreads.
Snowflake Challenge: day 2
Jan. 3rd, 2026 08:59 pmshewhostaplesPets of Fandom
Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!
My cat is currently engaging in her favourite bad habit of chewing the closest convenient bit of flexible plastic. A crumpet packet, I think. Her name is Port, but we hardly ever call her that; she's mostly "the cat". She's about 13, not very bright, but extremely fluffy and friendly.
I'm not really in a fandom at the moment; my most recent one was Romeo and Juliet, where Tybalt, a human character, is occasionally addressed as "king of cats" to wind him up, and where Benvolio, another human character, may possess an offstage dog, but the only reference is part of Mercutio's bullshit, so who knows. There's also a lot of falconry imagery, which I'm not getting into at this time of night. I did once give Tybalt an actual cat as part of a fix-it fic.
Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!
My cat is currently engaging in her favourite bad habit of chewing the closest convenient bit of flexible plastic. A crumpet packet, I think. Her name is Port, but we hardly ever call her that; she's mostly "the cat". She's about 13, not very bright, but extremely fluffy and friendly.
I'm not really in a fandom at the moment; my most recent one was Romeo and Juliet, where Tybalt, a human character, is occasionally addressed as "king of cats" to wind him up, and where Benvolio, another human character, may possess an offstage dog, but the only reference is part of Mercutio's bullshit, so who knows. There's also a lot of falconry imagery, which I'm not getting into at this time of night. I did once give Tybalt an actual cat as part of a fix-it fic.
Butterfly, by Kathryn Harvey
Jan. 3rd, 2026 12:11 pmrachelmanijaMy New Year's resolution is to attempt to review every full-length published book that I read this year. We'll see how it goes. For my first full-length read of 2026, which is obviously highly symbolic, I have of course carefully selected a beautifully written novel with deep themes and social importance.
Just kidding! I randomly picked up a trashy beach read novel from the 80s, purchased at a thrift shop, while in the bathroom, got surprisingly engrossed in it, and took it out of the bathroom to read on the sofa. Which, to be fair, is probably symbolic of both the year to come and my reading habits in general.
Above an exclusive men's store on Rodeo Drive there is a private club called Butterfly, where women are free to act out their secret erotic fantasies.
I have a thing for "fancy sex club/brothel with highly-paid sex workers who like their jobs and fulfill your erotic fantasies." So I bought this book (50 cents, at a thrift shop) and actually read it even though it's in a genre I almost never read, which is the fat beach read about rich people's sex lives written in the 1980s.
Butterfly follows three women who patronize the club, Butterfly. It's named for the beautiful little butterfly charm bracelets women wear to the store to identify themselves to the staff as patrons of the club, so they can be whisked upstairs to have their sexual fantasies satisfied (just by men, alas), whether that means recreating a cowboy bar complete with sawdust on the floor to a bedroom where a sexy burglar breaks in to a dinner date where you argue about books, yes really. The women are all accomplished and successful, but have something missing or wrong in their lives: the surgeon can't have an orgasm, the pool designer deals with on the job sexism, and the lawyer is married to an emotionally abusive asshole. Their time at Butterfly leads, whether directly or indirectly, to positive changes in their lives.
( Spoilers are almost certainly not what you're expecting. )
This novel, while dealing seriously with some serious topics, is also basically a fun beach read. I read it in winter with a space heater and hot cider, which also works. I'm not sure it converted me to the general genre of 80s beach reads, but I sincerely enjoyed it.
Content notes: Child sexual abuse, child sexual slavery (not at the Butterfly sex club, everyone's a consenting adult there), forced abortion, emotional abuse.
Just kidding! I randomly picked up a trashy beach read novel from the 80s, purchased at a thrift shop, while in the bathroom, got surprisingly engrossed in it, and took it out of the bathroom to read on the sofa. Which, to be fair, is probably symbolic of both the year to come and my reading habits in general.
Above an exclusive men's store on Rodeo Drive there is a private club called Butterfly, where women are free to act out their secret erotic fantasies.
I have a thing for "fancy sex club/brothel with highly-paid sex workers who like their jobs and fulfill your erotic fantasies." So I bought this book (50 cents, at a thrift shop) and actually read it even though it's in a genre I almost never read, which is the fat beach read about rich people's sex lives written in the 1980s.
Butterfly follows three women who patronize the club, Butterfly. It's named for the beautiful little butterfly charm bracelets women wear to the store to identify themselves to the staff as patrons of the club, so they can be whisked upstairs to have their sexual fantasies satisfied (just by men, alas), whether that means recreating a cowboy bar complete with sawdust on the floor to a bedroom where a sexy burglar breaks in to a dinner date where you argue about books, yes really. The women are all accomplished and successful, but have something missing or wrong in their lives: the surgeon can't have an orgasm, the pool designer deals with on the job sexism, and the lawyer is married to an emotionally abusive asshole. Their time at Butterfly leads, whether directly or indirectly, to positive changes in their lives.
( Spoilers are almost certainly not what you're expecting. )
This novel, while dealing seriously with some serious topics, is also basically a fun beach read. I read it in winter with a space heater and hot cider, which also works. I'm not sure it converted me to the general genre of 80s beach reads, but I sincerely enjoyed it.
Content notes: Child sexual abuse, child sexual slavery (not at the Butterfly sex club, everyone's a consenting adult there), forced abortion, emotional abuse.
Snowflake Challenge 2026: Day 2
Jan. 3rd, 2026 02:01 pmadriennefaeChallenge #2: Pets of Fandom. Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!
So this one is perfect for me because I just got a cat a few months ago and have been filling up my phone with pictures of him ever since. His name is Cosmo, he's about ten months old now and he's very cute and constantly in my way whenever I try to do things like cook, read, use my computer, pack for a trip, exist etc
( rambling (mostly about cats both real and fictional) and cat pics )
So this one is perfect for me because I just got a cat a few months ago and have been filling up my phone with pictures of him ever since. His name is Cosmo, he's about ten months old now and he's very cute and constantly in my way whenever I try to do things like cook, read, use my computer, pack for a trip, exist etc
( rambling (mostly about cats both real and fictional) and cat pics )
Randomish things
Jan. 3rd, 2026 03:50 pmoursinThis one got occluded by festivities - Converts by Melanie McDonagh review – roads to Rome:
There is, too, a notable lack of women in this book, notwithstanding chapters on Gwen John, Spark and the Oxford philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe.
So, not just literary stars who took The Road to Rome and NO LETITIA FAIRFIELD who probably breaks a lot of the patterns by continuing to be a left-wing and feminist (stroppily so) public health doctor and vocal against what we would now call patriarchal misogyny within the Church (she was so Dame Rebecca's sister even if they didn't get on).
***
Lucy Mangan on John Lewis's 'members' lounge' - I have a distant recollection that back in the day when department stores were first A Thing, they did in fact have lounges where shopping ladies could repose themselves, along with facilities. Probably not drinkies and chocs, though.
***
The only known photographs of mathematician and computing pioneer Ada Lovelace have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery just before they were expected to be sold to a private buyer. Fairly early instances of the photographic art, too.
***
Murkying the waters: The Lies and Falsifications of Oliver Sacks:
Rachel Aviv explored the personal journals of the celebrated neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks. What she found was shocking: he had fabricated and embellished some of his most well-known work — like Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
***
On a rather different diary story: the prolonged saga of publishing Pepys: who would have believed this, over whether to go ahead and include all Samuel's more smutty adventures:
In 1960, while Penguin was being prosecuted for the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Magdalene sought the advice of its fellows on whether to proceed with a complete edition. C.S. Lewis argued that it would be ‘pusillanimous and unscholarly’ to hold back. Society, he wrote, was already so corrupted that the supposed further harm of ‘printing a few, obscure and widely separated passages in a very long and expensive book, seems to me unrealistic or even hypocritical’.
Yay Jack!
Tags:
Three things make a post
Jan. 3rd, 2026 07:48 amvriddy1. Looking for new friends? ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
friending_memes is hosting a "new year, new friend" friending meme!
Click the banner to join us and make some new friends!
2. Of course,snowflake_challenge started as well :D Never too late to jump in if you'd like to, it's a chill challenge like that! I knew I wasn't going to do it this year either, but thought "maybe next year"..... however it's January 3rd and I'm already fighting to keep up with my reading page because I met SO MANY OF YOU COOL PEOPLE through the challenge, and you're participating again haha :D It's really a great way to get to know people a little bit before the friending meme that usually happens at the end of it. I can't recommend it enough if you'd like your reading page to be more lively.
3. I'm going to link again to this AO3 PSA from a while back. It's titled "Protect Your Contact Information From Scammers" but it's interesting in that it describes the format that spam comments take nowadays: first a paragraph that seems genuinely related to your story (thanks and fuck you, genAI), then an invitation to reach out to them because they want to make a comic from it, or help you give more impact to your story, or whatever cue to take you off-site.
The post also offers a step-by-step template for reporting registered accounts that do it, and I gotta say it's effective as the account I reported yesterday was removed in less than 24 hours. (Also, those comments are annoying always, but they sting extra on fics that you know from the start won't have much/any audience. Curses on your potatoes, spammers!!)
(Having said that I don't think the spambots have figured out the "Uncategorized Fandoms" section yet as I haven't gotten any of these on K-9 fic -- if you hate spam comments you should totally join us there XD)
friending_memes is hosting a "new year, new friend" friending meme!Click the banner to join us and make some new friends!
2. Of course,
snowflake_challenge started as well :D Never too late to jump in if you'd like to, it's a chill challenge like that! I knew I wasn't going to do it this year either, but thought "maybe next year"..... however it's January 3rd and I'm already fighting to keep up with my reading page because I met SO MANY OF YOU COOL PEOPLE through the challenge, and you're participating again haha :D It's really a great way to get to know people a little bit before the friending meme that usually happens at the end of it. I can't recommend it enough if you'd like your reading page to be more lively.3. I'm going to link again to this AO3 PSA from a while back. It's titled "Protect Your Contact Information From Scammers" but it's interesting in that it describes the format that spam comments take nowadays: first a paragraph that seems genuinely related to your story (thanks and fuck you, genAI), then an invitation to reach out to them because they want to make a comic from it, or help you give more impact to your story, or whatever cue to take you off-site.
The post also offers a step-by-step template for reporting registered accounts that do it, and I gotta say it's effective as the account I reported yesterday was removed in less than 24 hours. (Also, those comments are annoying always, but they sting extra on fics that you know from the start won't have much/any audience. Curses on your potatoes, spammers!!)
(Having said that I don't think the spambots have figured out the "Uncategorized Fandoms" section yet as I haven't gotten any of these on K-9 fic -- if you hate spam comments you should totally join us there XD)
Candy Hearts 2026
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:36 pmsaiditallbeforeDear Creator,
I'm sure I'll like whatever you make for me, so just have fun! I know there are some characters/pairings that have more prompts than others, but that just means I had a lot of ideas for those (or had a past letter to copy & paste from). If I requested a character, I would be happy to see just about anything for them!
I’m![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
saiditallbefore on AO3.
( General likes and DNWs )
( Absolute Universe )
( DC Comics )
( H2O: Just Add Water )
( Leverage )
💖💖💖
I'm sure I'll like whatever you make for me, so just have fun! I know there are some characters/pairings that have more prompts than others, but that just means I had a lot of ideas for those (or had a past letter to copy & paste from). If I requested a character, I would be happy to see just about anything for them!
I’m
( General likes and DNWs )
( Absolute Universe )
( DC Comics )
( H2O: Just Add Water )
( Leverage )
💖💖💖
Daily Happiness
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:07 pmtorachan1. More rain than expected today, but we still managed to have a nice lunch at Universal Studios. We are definitely still in the exploration phase there, as there are a lot of things we still don't know. For example, today we found out that the fake buildings in Simpsons Land apparently hide a giant indoor dining area (two floors!). We didn't actually go in this time, but I'm curious to see if it's themed as well.
2. The bathroom sink was draining slow, but I got a bottle of Drano at the store this morning on my walk and that seems to have fixed it.
3. Chloe hardly ever lounges on my bed lately (she prefers Carla's bed or her warming bed), but she was hanging out there this afternoon.
2. The bathroom sink was draining slow, but I got a bottle of Drano at the store this morning on my walk and that seems to have fixed it.
3. Chloe hardly ever lounges on my bed lately (she prefers Carla's bed or her warming bed), but she was hanging out there this afternoon.
Snowflake Challenge 2026, Day 1
Jan. 3rd, 2026 11:57 am22degreehaloChallenge #1
The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.
So: Hi!!!!! I try to do Snowflake Challenge every year (I fully completed it in 2024 IIRC!!!) and at this point it's pretty much the only consistent time I post to this blog :') Which is a bit of a shame, but while I used to regularly write longer-form posts to tumblr, over the last year and a half or so I've been dealing with some pretty heavy fatigue and haven't really done that anymore. Or maybe it's just that I'm channelling all that writing energy into fic right now? I got into SVSSS last year and have been absolutely bursting with inspiration ever since <333
( Anyway!! As for what I plan to get out of this event... I'm not sure!!! )
The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.
So: Hi!!!!! I try to do Snowflake Challenge every year (I fully completed it in 2024 IIRC!!!) and at this point it's pretty much the only consistent time I post to this blog :') Which is a bit of a shame, but while I used to regularly write longer-form posts to tumblr, over the last year and a half or so I've been dealing with some pretty heavy fatigue and haven't really done that anymore. Or maybe it's just that I'm channelling all that writing energy into fic right now? I got into SVSSS last year and have been absolutely bursting with inspiration ever since <333
( Anyway!! As for what I plan to get out of this event... I'm not sure!!! )
2026 Universal Studios Trip #1 (1/2/26)
Jan. 2nd, 2026 05:12 pmtorachanSince I have another four day weekend, I asked Carla if she wanted to do something else one of the days, and she said she wanted to go to Universal again. The forecast has more rain for Saturday and Sunday, so we decided to go today since it was supposed to be clear all day (as of yesterday) and then no rain until around 3pm (as of this morning).
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
2025 in review: books
Jan. 2nd, 2026 01:33 pmsnickficI guess I might finish another book before year’s end, but this feels close enough to be pretty safe. NB I have reviews for most of these books in my books tag.
How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/reading patterns/etc?
Books read: 25
Pages read (roughly): 7450
Relative to past years, more murder mysteries, more rereads (five), more older stuff (four before 1940). Less straight horror. Probably more textually queer stuff? I read a lot on airplanes. I took almost the whole summer off from reading and watched movies instead.
I had a mountaineering phase kickstarted by that one Jon Krakauer book, which also meant reading way more nonfiction than usual. Apparently the key to reading nonfiction is to have specific topics you want to know about, rather than just being like “I want to Learn Things.” Who could have foreseen!
What are your top 3 books that you read this year for the first time?
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Yes, it really is that good, just like everyone says.
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge. Beautiful prose, top-notch worldbuilding, and some great horror moments.
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. A shot STRAIGHT to the id.
What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
Maybe The Secret of Chimneys, an Agatha Christie novel that I probably read at some point but had forgotten basically all of. The other thing I’d forgotten: how fun Christie is when she’s really on her game. This was a rollicking delight.
Which books most disappointed you this year?
It was disappointing to realize how much worse the sexism was in the Pern books than I remembered. Just absolutely soaking in it. Ugh.
Also, wow, I hated Wild Spaces by SL Coney. Haaaaated.
And I reread Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys and didn’t enjoy it as much the second time around. There felt like too many characters, too thinly characterized. I still love Aphra and the worldbuilding, though.
Did you reread any books? If so, which one was you favourite?
I reread several this year, but the one that I enjoyed the most and definitely the one I spent the most time with was Moby Dick. The langague, gosh. Good enough to eat. Having reacquainted myself with the story, I think I’m going to keep just dipping in and out of it every so often. I found and bought a physical edition I really love, the Canterbury Classic "Word Cloud" edition that is just a pleasure to read and makes dipping in very appealing.
On a related note, I think this year was the tipping point to me becoming a prose snob. The prose in Moby Dick is so rich and chewy and worth reading and rereading. Sometimes it's basically impenetrable, but even so! Incredibly rewarding. And then I open so many new novels and quit on the first page because the prose is so artless.
It's not like I want every novel to be Moby Dick, which also happens to be a timeless work of literature: hardly a fair comparison for a random novel I pick up at the library. However, there are lots of authors out there writing prose that is graceful and evocative in their own ways. Frances Hardinge and Stephen King come immediately to mind, for two very different living examples.
I just cannot be fucked anymore with prose that doesn't show some skill. Life is too short. I suspect this might lead me to reading more classics, which I'm not mad about.
What's the oldest book you read?
The Unafraid, a 1913 adventure romance by Eleanor Ingram (with a textual gay side character!), is the oldest that I read for the first time. For rereads, Moby Dick was published in 1851.
What's the newest book you read?
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, published this year.
Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?
My most emphatic DNF was the second book in the Briardark series by SA Harian. I reread the first book just to remember what all was going on, then got like fifty pages into the second one and was like, actually I don’t care about any of these characters or the cosmic horror mystery.
Some others I started and wandered off from:
- The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
- The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
- Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
- The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis
- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby
- Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
- Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
What was your predominant format this year?
Still mostly dead trees around here, although I did listen to a mountaineering book and part of Moby Dick on audiobook, and I read a couple of ebooks during my travels.
What's the longest book you read this year?
Moby Dick, with 561 pages in my edition.
Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?
I wanted to read more outside my usual fiction genres, which I really didn’t manage to do other than for a couple of specific items on the to-read list. Speaking of, here is all I read from the to-read list. Honestly five books from the January tbr is pretty good for me lol.
Moby Dick
The Iskryne books (I read the first two)
The Book of Lamps and Banners (Cass Neary #4)
something by ECR Lorac
Any goals for 2025?
My immediate list of stuff I want to tackle or finish is:
Stranges on a Train (finish)
Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
The Count of Monte Cristo?
Something… literary, maybe?? Maybe My Brilliant Friend or something by Anne Rivers Siddons.
The Draegaera books (starting with Jhereg)
Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
The Coldfire Trilogy
Ammonite
Dublin Murder Squad
American Elsewhere
Perdido Street Station (reread)
A Zelazny collection (reread)
The Folly of the World
Maplecroft by Cherie Priest (Lizzie Borden + Lovecraft?!)
Craft Sequence – Max Gladstone
Too Like the Lightning
I would say the main theme here is "ambitious," for me if not the author. A lot of older stuff, or stuff that is beloved that I haven't tried, or stuff I've just been meaning to get around to. A couple of those are already on my shelf, and it'd be nice to knock them off the TBR.
How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/reading patterns/etc?
Books read: 25
Pages read (roughly): 7450
Relative to past years, more murder mysteries, more rereads (five), more older stuff (four before 1940). Less straight horror. Probably more textually queer stuff? I read a lot on airplanes. I took almost the whole summer off from reading and watched movies instead.
I had a mountaineering phase kickstarted by that one Jon Krakauer book, which also meant reading way more nonfiction than usual. Apparently the key to reading nonfiction is to have specific topics you want to know about, rather than just being like “I want to Learn Things.” Who could have foreseen!
What are your top 3 books that you read this year for the first time?
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Yes, it really is that good, just like everyone says.
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge. Beautiful prose, top-notch worldbuilding, and some great horror moments.
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. A shot STRAIGHT to the id.
What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
Maybe The Secret of Chimneys, an Agatha Christie novel that I probably read at some point but had forgotten basically all of. The other thing I’d forgotten: how fun Christie is when she’s really on her game. This was a rollicking delight.
Which books most disappointed you this year?
It was disappointing to realize how much worse the sexism was in the Pern books than I remembered. Just absolutely soaking in it. Ugh.
Also, wow, I hated Wild Spaces by SL Coney. Haaaaated.
And I reread Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys and didn’t enjoy it as much the second time around. There felt like too many characters, too thinly characterized. I still love Aphra and the worldbuilding, though.
Did you reread any books? If so, which one was you favourite?
I reread several this year, but the one that I enjoyed the most and definitely the one I spent the most time with was Moby Dick. The langague, gosh. Good enough to eat. Having reacquainted myself with the story, I think I’m going to keep just dipping in and out of it every so often. I found and bought a physical edition I really love, the Canterbury Classic "Word Cloud" edition that is just a pleasure to read and makes dipping in very appealing.
On a related note, I think this year was the tipping point to me becoming a prose snob. The prose in Moby Dick is so rich and chewy and worth reading and rereading. Sometimes it's basically impenetrable, but even so! Incredibly rewarding. And then I open so many new novels and quit on the first page because the prose is so artless.
It's not like I want every novel to be Moby Dick, which also happens to be a timeless work of literature: hardly a fair comparison for a random novel I pick up at the library. However, there are lots of authors out there writing prose that is graceful and evocative in their own ways. Frances Hardinge and Stephen King come immediately to mind, for two very different living examples.
I just cannot be fucked anymore with prose that doesn't show some skill. Life is too short. I suspect this might lead me to reading more classics, which I'm not mad about.
What's the oldest book you read?
The Unafraid, a 1913 adventure romance by Eleanor Ingram (with a textual gay side character!), is the oldest that I read for the first time. For rereads, Moby Dick was published in 1851.
What's the newest book you read?
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, published this year.
Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?
My most emphatic DNF was the second book in the Briardark series by SA Harian. I reread the first book just to remember what all was going on, then got like fifty pages into the second one and was like, actually I don’t care about any of these characters or the cosmic horror mystery.
Some others I started and wandered off from:
- The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
- The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
- Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
- The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis
- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby
- Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
- Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
What was your predominant format this year?
Still mostly dead trees around here, although I did listen to a mountaineering book and part of Moby Dick on audiobook, and I read a couple of ebooks during my travels.
What's the longest book you read this year?
Moby Dick, with 561 pages in my edition.
Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?
I wanted to read more outside my usual fiction genres, which I really didn’t manage to do other than for a couple of specific items on the to-read list. Speaking of, here is all I read from the to-read list. Honestly five books from the January tbr is pretty good for me lol.
Moby Dick
The Iskryne books (I read the first two)
The Book of Lamps and Banners (Cass Neary #4)
something by ECR Lorac
Any goals for 2025?
My immediate list of stuff I want to tackle or finish is:
Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
The Count of Monte Cristo?
Something… literary, maybe?? Maybe My Brilliant Friend or something by Anne Rivers Siddons.
The Draegaera books (starting with Jhereg)
Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
The Coldfire Trilogy
Ammonite
Dublin Murder Squad
American Elsewhere
Perdido Street Station (reread)
A Zelazny collection (reread)
The Folly of the World
Maplecroft by Cherie Priest (Lizzie Borden + Lovecraft?!)
Craft Sequence – Max Gladstone
Too Like the Lightning
I would say the main theme here is "ambitious," for me if not the author. A lot of older stuff, or stuff that is beloved that I haven't tried, or stuff I've just been meaning to get around to. A couple of those are already on my shelf, and it'd be nice to knock them off the TBR.
2025 in review: Fandom
Jan. 2nd, 2026 12:15 pmsnickficMy year in summary
I posted 88k words this year across 31 fics and wrote more than 103k new words total. I posted 8 Oasis fics (including several very short ones), 5 original works, 2 Re-Animator fics, and 16 singleton fics for other fandoms.
Fandoms of my heart this year
Oasis, obviously. What a time to be alive.
I also rekindled some Re-Animator feelings earlier this year, between fic I was writing and getting to see the movie in the theater. On film, even!
Other fandoms I felt at least a little fannish about this year, whether writing, daydreaming, or what have you:
- The Iskryne books by Bear and Monette
- On Swift Horses, the 2024 movie
- Dune movies
( my year in fandom, in much greater detail, with a meme )
( other fannish things )
I posted 88k words this year across 31 fics and wrote more than 103k new words total. I posted 8 Oasis fics (including several very short ones), 5 original works, 2 Re-Animator fics, and 16 singleton fics for other fandoms.
Fandoms of my heart this year
Oasis, obviously. What a time to be alive.
I also rekindled some Re-Animator feelings earlier this year, between fic I was writing and getting to see the movie in the theater. On film, even!
Other fandoms I felt at least a little fannish about this year, whether writing, daydreaming, or what have you:
- The Iskryne books by Bear and Monette
- On Swift Horses, the 2024 movie
- Dune movies
( my year in fandom, in much greater detail, with a meme )
( other fannish things )
Snowflake Challenge 2026: Day 1
Jan. 2nd, 2026 03:03 pmadriennefaeChallenge #1: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
Hi! I'm Adrienne, I'm in my early 30s and use she/her pronouns. You can find my sticky post, which contains more info about me and my interests, here. I've been in fandom off and on since I was about 10, lurking a lot but also writing fic and posting about media I like and occasionally doing other things.
I've been doing this challenge every year since 2019, which was the first time it happened after I made my account here in late 2018. I look forward to it every year because I think it's a good opportunity to reflect on the year and my fannish interests and goals, and also meet new people in fandom. I also haven't been posting here much lately, or posting or actively participating anywhere else really, and I'd like to get back into it.
Hi! I'm Adrienne, I'm in my early 30s and use she/her pronouns. You can find my sticky post, which contains more info about me and my interests, here. I've been in fandom off and on since I was about 10, lurking a lot but also writing fic and posting about media I like and occasionally doing other things.
I've been doing this challenge every year since 2019, which was the first time it happened after I made my account here in late 2018. I look forward to it every year because I think it's a good opportunity to reflect on the year and my fannish interests and goals, and also meet new people in fandom. I also haven't been posting here much lately, or posting or actively participating anywhere else really, and I'd like to get back into it.
2025 Fic Roundup
Jan. 2nd, 2026 10:38 amrocky41_7
Total Words Published at end of year: 19,763, which is a massive drop from last year's roughly 103k, which was already a drop from 2023's 162k. Normally I don't even include unpublished work, but the Ancient Arlathan Double Agent AU, which I started publishing and then withdrew, is more than double the word count of everything else I wrote this year combined, so it seemed silly not to include it.
Fandoms: DA mostly--which flickered and died as the disappointment from Veilguard really set in. I published or finished up a few Tolkien fics which had already been in the works and dropped a second chapter of a five year old Mass Effect fic. In spite of my ongoing love affair with Baldur's Gate, I simply haven't felt the urge to write anything for it.
Highest Everything (raw kudos, hits, comments):
- Hits: One Morning (of Several) on the Citadel (914)
- Kudos: One Morning (of Several) on the Citadel (84)
- Comments: By Invitation Only (4)
New Things I Tried: N/A
Fic I Spent the Most Time On: Undoubtedly the Double Agent AU, which I still never got to a place I was satisfied with. It just became unwieldy and I realized it was going to take a lot more time to get it to a place I was happy with than I was willing to invest, so I shelved it.
Fic I Spent the Least Time On: Bonafide which was just some silly pseudo-political Elronduil make-out banter,
Favorite Thing I Wrote: I don't really feel strongly about any of this year's product, but the second chapter of One Morning probably is my favorite.
Favorite Thing(s) I Read:
- Pray for Rain by mafalda_157 - Back in ancient Arlathan, when Elgar’nan is on the precipice of declaring himself god, he and Solas clash over what constitutes good leadership.
- The Wolf, Bruised by bitterling - The Dread Wolf expected this. But he had hoped to be summoned, or to be found in private… yet it seems that the All-Father relishes these public displays.
- A flash to the sun, the golden close of love by @adler-obsessed - “Darling Cassandra, do sit down before your legs give out. I do not want my rooms to become the site of a holy pilgrimage, where devotees pray at the resting place of Divine Victoria.”
- Last Exit by macbethisms - The funeral of Esen-Temur, with live commentary.
- As Little Might be Thought by our_ourobos - Given his first taste of freedom, Elros pushes the limits.
- Queen of Peace by astardanced - Csethiro broke abruptly free of the pack and came sweeping towards him with hands outstretched, probably hoping to do damage control. “Serenity,” she said, ignoring her father, who seemed to be wanting to prompt her like a conductor. “We are honoured to have you here.”
- All Your Sisters Wanna Fly by astardanced - an heir for the ceredada, at long last.
- Unembittered by Arveldis - Findis makes a last entreaty.
Writing Goals for 2026: Find some inspiration...it is clearly lacking.
Friday open thread: picking things up, carrying things forward, setting things down
Jan. 2nd, 2026 06:22 pmdolorosa_12It's the first Friday open thread of 2026. In customary fashion, I'm going to use the following prompt, which I feel is the right question with which to start a new year:
What are you planning to leave behind in 2025, and what are you planning to pick up and/or carry forward into 2026?
( My answer )
On that rather fraught note, what about all of you? Do you have anything you want to leave behind, or carry with you?
What are you planning to leave behind in 2025, and what are you planning to pick up and/or carry forward into 2026?
( My answer )
On that rather fraught note, what about all of you? Do you have anything you want to leave behind, or carry with you?
I hope it's not AN OMEN
Jan. 2nd, 2026 04:16 pmoursinPartner's substituted veggie burgers had to be panfried rather than ovencooked (we actually usually spend a fair amount of time making sure that they can) and have RUINED the frying pan with some adherent substance which scrubbing and soaking has failed to shift.
Fortunately we live in the future and I was a) able to consult Which about the best frying pans (they have quite recently surveyed these, yay) and b) order one for same day click and collect at the local Argos.
Even if we entirely failed in entering the details to get our Nectar points on the transaction.
In other news, it appears that there was SNOW some time earlier today or last night which was still lying in shadowed spots when I went for my walk. Bitterly cold out but very bright.
Parakeet disporting around the back gardens and adjacent park.
We have not seen anything more of the fox which came right up the steps from the garden to the back door, after a leisurely descent left its marker on the garden fence, and then got into it with next door's cat, which was sitting on the back fence going 'come and 'ave a go if you think you're 'ard enough'.
December TV shows
Jan. 2nd, 2026 02:01 pmdolorosa_12Staying at home over Christmas certainly meant Matthias and I were able to finish up a lot of TV shows this past month: six in total (plus a three-part BBC documentary about 1990s/2000s girl bands which was very good, but didn't say anything you wouldn't have expected from a documentary on that topic, so I don't have a lot to say about it myself).
The other shows were:
House of Guinness, a glossy, soapy historical drama about the quartet of 19th-century siblings who were heirs to the real-world brewing empire. This is another Steven Knight vehicle, with all his hallmarks: stylised comic book sensibility, anachronistic music, very broad-brush engagement with the politics of the era (in this case 19th-century Ireland), and larger-than-life characters whose various attempts to deal with their considerable problems just keep escalating the situation and spawning new problems. I enjoyed this, although I felt the tension was slightly dampened by the fact that most of the characters were insulated from any serious consequences due to their wealth and social position.
The third season of The Diplomat, a blackly comedic geopolitical thriller starring Keri Russell as a career American diplomat who, after postings in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, ends up posted as the ambassador to the UK. She's expected to be ceremonial and decorative in a cushy job, but suddenly lands at the centre of an international political conspiracy and scandal reaching into the highest levels of power, and struggles to deal with her embassy's, her country's, and her own personal responses to the fallout. The balance between comedy and political thriller is much more on the political thriller side of things this season, although there are still some hilariously awkward moments, but ultimately what I felt it was really about, at its heart, is the appalling tension between the undeniable benefits and utter indignity of being an ally of the United States from the 'democratic West' (quote marks because geographically some of the countries I'm including here are located in the Asia-Pacific part of the world), even when its government is led by people who at least aspire to the ideals of the post-WWII international order.
Season 10 of Shetland, which I'm continuing to enjoy with the new leads. The mystery this season had an almost Icelandic saga feel to it (cycles of grief, buried secrets, and revenge in a small, isolated community), the landscape and settings remained as starkly gorgeous as ever — and more fun to me this time because literally every Lerwick location was now familiar, and Matthias and I had a great time spotting various landmarks.
The Beast in Me, a psychological thriller in which Claire Danes plays a critically acclaimed author suffering from writer's block and struggling under the weight of grief at the death of her young son, which ended her marriage. She's living in upstate New York alone with her dog in the family home, which is quite literally falling apart around her, when she becomes tangled up in the saga and scandal involving her new neighbour — a wealthy New York property developer accused of murdering his wife. This has an excellent cast (the neighbour is played by Matthew Rhys with brittle intensity), and the story is tightly told, if a bit too conveniently wrapped up at the end.
Season 3 of Dark Winds, the historical mystery series set in the 1970s and starring Zahn McClarnon as a Navajo Tribal Police officer investigating various murders that take place in his community. This was, as always, excellent, with a stellar cast, a tremendous sense of place, and a really subtly written undercurrent of the ongoing effects of intergenerational, colonial trauma, what justice really means in such a context, and the limits of such justice. It always takes ages for new seasons of this show to make their way to the UK, and I'm already impatient for the fourth season.
The final season of Stranger Things, which I'm counting as a December show, even though I only watched the final episode last night. I have to admit that I was losing patience with the show by the last season (I had no idea the fourth season wasn't going to be the last, found watching it something of a slog that I was doing for completion's sake, and then realised with a great deal of irritation that there was no time in the final episode of Season 4 to wrap up all the various plot threads, at which point Matthias informed me that there was to be an entire additional season), and when I discovered that most episodes of the fifth season were going to be the length of short films, it felt like a self-indulgent last milking of the cash cow. So my expectations were low: it was bloated with characters, overloaded with the weight of its mythology, and the idea that it would be able to find satisfying ways to wrap things up, conclude convincing character arcs, and tie up all the various dangling interpersonal character relationship threads seemed to me far-fetched — but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed several of the middle episodes, the more clichéd emotional beats seemed perfectly calculated to appeal to me (the conclusion of Will's story this season in particular really hit me in the heart), and for the most part I felt the whole thing was handled in a satisfying way. I've never felt the slightest bit fannish about this show, so my investment is quite superficial, but on that level, although I was losing patience last season, the destination was, overall, worth the journey.
The other shows were: