Reading

Entry tags:

Recent Reading: Annihilation

Today I wrapped up Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, a horror/sci-fi novel with fantastical (?) elements about a biologist exploring a very unsettling landscape.

There are no names given in this book—the narrator and protagonist is simply "the Biologist," and she refers to her other three teammates by their job titles as well. Locations outside of the place they're exploring—Area X—are not given either, but the world is implied to be much the same as our own, with Area X a troubling and relatively recent anomaly. A private company hires the Biologist and her colleagues to venture into this strange place and take notes. They are the 12^th such expedition.

I appreciate that much of the horror in Annihilation isn't in-your-face: it's the slow build of things that are just off. This quiet and subtle approach means that when something extreme happens, it feels extreme. The Biologist and her colleagues know that Area X is dangerous before they venture in, but even so, they are unprepared for how and to what degree. VanderMeer's portrayal of how trust frays among relative strangers under these conditions felt realistic.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

Recent Reading: The Dispossessed

"There was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, the idea of a boundary. But the idea was real. It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing more important than that wall."

I knew this book was going to hit hard from the opening paragraph above, and it did not disappoint. I've enjoyed Ursula Le Guin's work before--The Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favorite books—and I absolutely see why The Dispossessed is considered one of her crowning pieces. The setting for this book is a planet and its moon—Urras, the planet, is a lush world not dissimilar from Earth, which is home to several capitalist countries and at least one socialist country; and Anarres, the moon, which is a dusty, resource-scanty place home to a society of anarchists who fled from Urras just under two hundred years ago. The core of the novel concerns Shevek, a theoretical physicist from Anarres who chooses to relocate to Urras.

Le Guin captures truly great sci-fi because this work is so imbued with curiosity. Le Guin is asking questions at the heart of any great sci-fi work: What defines humanity? What can we achieve, and how is it done, and what does that mean for society? What is society? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to be part of a whole? To me, sci-fi can't be truly sci-fi without a measure of philosophy, and The Dispossessed has this in droves.

( Read more... )

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 13

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 13 by Kanehito Yamada

Spoilers for the earlier volumes

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

!feedback

What should our next event be?

What should we do for our next event?

- another week-long word count challenge with questions to answer (like "700 to 7k")

- another week-long "3-sentence story" challenge (or 1-sentence, 4-sentence, etc)

- a week-long daily drabble challenge

- a month-long mini prompt table challenge where you aim to write multiple stories

- a challenge of a month or two to write a single short story (theme provided or choose your own), swap for critiques, and edit so you end up with a polished story suitable for submitting to anthologies

- a challenge where the community cowrites a story (one person writes a paragraph/max 5 sentences in the comments, then the next person writes the next paragraph, etc)

- something else

Current Music: Believe You - Slow Coast

Entry tags:

!24hourchallenge

Surprise 24-hour challenge

From when you see this post, you have 24-hours to write something for the following prompt:

It's only when I reach the other side

Bonus points if you a) finish a story, and b) it's a 100-word drabble (or a double or triple drabble).

Feel free to share your story in the comments - or a link to it, if you've posted it elsewhere. If you don't finish the story, feel free to share your word count and any comments on the progress you made. :)

ETA: You can use the prompt with the exact wording, or in a way where it's clear you've drawn inspiration from it.

(Prompt from Believe You by Slow Coast.)

Entry tags:

Winter Fest in July Banners

I made the banners for this year's Winter Fest in July. Banners under the cut.

( Read more... )

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 12

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 12 by Kanehito Yamada

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes

( Read more... )

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 11

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 11 by Kanehito Yamada

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volume.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

!buddy assignments

August Buddy Assignments

The themes for August are:
CONTEMPORARY // HISTORICAL FICTION // THRILLER // FEMALE AUTHOR
You must choose books with these genres and themes for your buddy. If you think you might not have books in your TBR pile that fits this month's choices, please let your buddy know.

You can find your buddy's TBR lists here.

dancesontrains &

badfalcon

colls &

siberian_angel

monkiainen &

yourivy

You have until the 5th to choose your partner's books.

Crime Classics Bingo

August's Bingo Fest is the British Library Crime Classics Bingo, with titles taken from the very long catalogue of books. Publication began in 2014 and every month a new book is published. These are all from the Golden Age of crime (approximately 1920s to 1950s), most books are full length novels, but there are also a number of short story collections. Details are available on the British Library website.

You are welcome to use whichever medium you like for completing a bingo. The fest will run from 1 August to 31 August.

The list of prompts is below, together with a sample card, but you are very welcome to make your own card as well.

And if you post to AO3, then do feel free to add to the allbingo collection.

Firstly, here are the main titles to choose from

Prompts

The Man Who Didn’t Fly	Someone from the Past	Serpents in Eden	Tea on Sunday	The Black Spectacles
Tour de Force	It Walks by Night	Settling Scores	Still Waters	Final Acts
Twice Round the Clock	Antidote to Venom	Deep Waters	Family Matters	Cat and Mouse
Silent Nights	Not to Be Taken	He Who Whispers	Excellent Intentions	Fear Stalks the Village
Green for Danger	Quick Curtain	Crossed Skis	Before the Fact	The Wheel Spins

But, as you might expect many of the titles include the words 'Death of' or 'Murder of' I've taken these out, so you can add, or create a small card with, either (or both):

People/clothes

Places

Entry tags:

Winterfest in July - Bingo - Blackout

Creator Name: cmk418
Fandoms: L.A. Confidential
List of Prompts: Silver Bells, Silver and Gold, Baby It's Cold Outside, Send Cards, White Christmas, Special Delivery, Midnight Kiss, Holiday in Handcuffs, Pretty Paper
Link to Card:Here

( Fic link under cut )

Entry tags:

Western Fest Blackout Bingo

Fandoms: Greek myth (and various subfandoms)

Mediums: 9 three-sentence fics

Prompts: quartet, atonement, variations on a theme, unrequited pining, "Put me down!", Brokeback Mountain, "The Camp Fire Has Gone Out," cursed, "No man can walk out of his own story."

Link to Card & Fills

Entry tags:

Winterfest in July Blackout Bingo

Creator Name: Spiralicious
Community:

allbingo
Fandoms: craft kits
List of Prompts: gingerbread house, Santa's toy shop, wreath, tree
Link to Card: My Card
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

Winterfest in July Blackout Bingo

Fandoms: Greek myth (and various subfandoms)

Mediums: 4 three-sentence fics

Prompts: snuggling by the fire, tree, candles, beach getaway

Link to Card & Fills

Entry tags:

Winterfest in July Bingo Row

My card: Winterfest in July
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, Burn Notice
Prompt: First Holiday as a Couple, Baking/Cooking, Baby's First Holiday, Christmas Fried Chicken, Build a Snowman
Authors Notes/Disclaimer:
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

July Monthly Post

This is the July community post for

allbingo. What were your bingo activities during July? What are your plans for August?

For July we had:
[new]
Westerns hosted by

ysabetwordsmith
Bring out your favorite Wild West fandoms, or contemporary west, or spaghetti western SF ... whatever shines your buckle.
Posting will be July 1-31.

[recurring]
Winter Fest in July hosted by

vexed_wench and

spiralicious
Beat the heat by focusing on winter holidays.
Posting will be July 1-31.

For August we will have:
[new]
British Library Crime Classics hosted by

smallhobbit
Themes from the Golden Age of crime, plus book titles.
Posting will be August 1-31.

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Bingo

I made blackout on my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest. \o/

B1 (Bad Girls) -- "Provoking Change by Bringing Nature" (standalone)
B2 (Close-knit Community) -- "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" (Frankenstein's Family)
B3 ("Put me down!") -- "A Stronger Woman" (Polychrome Heroics: Fortressa)
B4 ("I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it.") -- "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility" (One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis)
B5 (Black Hats / White Hats) -- "Upholding It, Wherever Found" (Polychrome Heroics)

I1 (Resist Oppression) -- "Happy Instruments of Salvation" (Peculiar Obligations)
I2 ("He's all hat and no cattle") -- "No Such Thing as Finished" (Polychrome Heroics)
I3 (Dodge) -- "A New Twist" (LIFC)
I4 (Firefly) -- "Something Elusive and Mysterious" (standalone)
I5 (I'll Get My Revenge) -- "The Well-being of All Our People" (Clay of Life)

N1 ("The Wayward Wind") -- "Maho Shoujo" (standalone)
N2 (Buffalo) -- "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers" (standalone)
N3 (WILD CARD: Clean Up the Town) -- "Indicative of the Extent" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)
N4 (Defenestration) -- "In Effigy" (Frankenstein's Family)
N5 (Independent Woman) -- "But an Empty Shell" (Polychrome Heroics)

G1 (The Harder They Fall) -- "Always Surprised by Consequences" (Polychrome Heroics)
G2 ("Cool Water") -- "Beautiful, Damn Hard, Increasingly Useful" (Polychrome Heroics: Kraken)
G3 (Redemption Story) -- "The Future by Consequence, the Past by Redemption" (Frankenstein's Family)
G4 (Immigrant) -- "Fed from So Many Sources" (Frankenstein's Family)
G5 (Sunrise / Sunset) -- "Strong, Competent, Capable" (Frankenstein's Family)

O1 (Captive / Slave) -- "Four Marks of True Repentence" (Polychrome Heroics)
O2 (Gambling) -- "Finding the Gold in the Spirit" (Polychrome Heroics: Shiv)
O3 (Silver / Gold) -- "The Bee Tree's Gift" (standalone)
O4 (Horse) -- "Nuwneek" (The Bear Tunnels)
O5 (Emotionally Constipated Man) -- "New and Innovative Approaches" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Star Trek Lower Decks

Entry tags:

Winter in July Bingo - Column

Name:

cornerofmadness
Card Theme: Winter in July Bingo
Prompts: Shopping, Peppermint, Bacalao, Midnight Kiss, Candles
Fandoms: Hazbin Hotel, Prodigal Song
My Card: My Card

( my fills under here )

Entry tags:

A+ Library Review: Someone You Can Build a Nest In

A+ Library is my bit where I review books with asexual and aromantic characters.

Went on a weekend trip with the squad this weekend and we had to stop at the local Barnes and Noble (It's been a while since I was in one that big! Ours in my town is now in the mall, so it's quite small.) where I spent too much and picked up some things on my TBR plus my own copy of Our Wives Under the Sea. We had some downtime on the trip and I managed to finish the first of the new books while we were there. This was Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.

I wanted so much to like this book, and not just because I was charmed by the purple-themed Barnes and Noble-exclusive cover and edging. It landed on my TBR for being an asexual romance (sapphic, if you take Shesheshen for female, which you don't have to do), and I enjoyed the plot concept. Unfortunately, I did not like the book. If I had not paid for it I probably would not have finished it. The following review is not to say it's a bad book—it has an average rating of 4.05 stars on StoryGraph based on over 6,000 reviews, so obviously people like it—but to say that it specifically had a number of things that made it a big thumbs down for me.

The Character(s): Shesheshen, asexual; Homily, asexual
Verdict: Thumbs down
Previous read: To be Taught, if Fortunate

( Full review below )

The School Reader, Fifth Book

The School Reader, Fifth Book: Designed As A Sequel To Sanders' Fourth Reader by Charles Walton Sanders

An 1859 book presenting texts for elocution classes. Probably mostly of interest for the selections, chosen for the edification of the young as well as the elocution -- and to keep them interested. Often has several selections on the same topic. For instance, at one point, the condor. Eulogies on Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- both, considering their common death date -- and on John Quincy Adams. Among many other topics.