cnovels | Member Posts

Point of Sighs by Melissa Scott:

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Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott:

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Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones:

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umadoshi

I was sort of kitchen-assistanting for both of last week's cooking ventures, with

scruloose doing most of the heavy lifting, but hey.

Last weekend we made this carnitas recipe that E.K. Johnston linked to (and she mentioned mango-lime salsa, which I hadn't had before but sounded good, so I bought some of that too, and liked it a lot), and it was really, really tasty. We got three meals out of it (and between that and a two-meal HelloFresh box, that pretty much covered last week's suppers).

Later in the week we roasted strawberries basically using this method (that recipe is also how I learned you can toast sugar, which I'd like to try sometime), but the only thing we added to the berries was sugar--specifically the summer fruit sugar blend from Silk Road Spices ("a delicious blend of maple and turbinado sugars with mint, ginger and freshly ground green cardamom"). This approach involves roasting the berries in a baking dish, while others do it by spreading them out in a single layer on baking sheets. I'd like to try it that way at some point too.

I also want to try slow roasting them at some point to compare the result.

Current Mood: hungry

lessonsinescapology

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bluedreaming

Good thing: after starting several years ago, I finally got around to cataloguing more of my books!

A thing: I am not done the books in my bedroom and I’m already over 400. (And this is after I culled/donated a bunch of sff mass-market paperbacks a few years ago, mostly ones we’d gotten from an emptying-nester.) Some of these catalogued books are “family” books and not strictly mine but…most of them are mine.

Another thing: this was motivated by needing to double-fill shelves, so I figured I’d catalogue while reorganizing. And this way it matters less if I can see all the spines…I hope?

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday, another bit of Japonisme:

On Seeing the Daibutsu, Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Long have I searched, Cathedral, shrine, and hall,
To find a symbol, from the hand of art,
That gave the full expression (not a part)
Of that ecstatic peace which follows all
Life’s pain and passion. Strange it should befall
This outer emblem of the inner heart
Was waiting far beyond the great world’s mart—
Immortal answer, to the mortal call.

Unknown the artist, vaguely known his creed:
But the bronze wonder of his work sufficed
To lift me to the heights his faith had trod.
For one rich moment, opulent indeed,
I walked with Krishna, Buddha, and the Christ,
And felt the full serenity of God.

Wilcox (1850-1919) was an extremely popular American poet with, shall we say, a mixed critical reception. She visited Japan in 1911. This is from her collection Picked Poems (1912), and is about the same statue as Kipling’s Buddha at Kamakura.

---L.

Subject quote from The Sign, Ace of Base.

lessonsinescapology

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aurumcalendula

As of yesterday I have a complete Andy/Quynh The Old Guard vid! I submitted it to DC-Slas vidshow, since I hadn't sent in a premiere yet (I didn't get a confirmation email from the form, so I'm hoping it went through).

It was very exciting to see Seven Seas'July survey gauging interest in The Beauty's Blade and asking what other baihe novels they should license!

On the other hand, I'm a bit irritated about the changes to Seven Seas' danmei page (it's no longer a separate webpage with detailed info about the series. I'm most irritated because the books' section on the main site have lower resolution cover art for the volumes and doesn't include planned volume counts for in progress releases).

I finished the two most recent Astreant volumes the other day and am a bit sad I've run out of books in the series (Melissa Scott does have a Patreon with a bunch of short stories, so I'm going to check that out next).

thawrecka

Asking the Question (1599 words) by thawrecka
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bleach (Anime & Manga)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Rukia, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Ayasegawa Yumichika/Madarame Ikkaku
Characters: Abarai Renji, Kuchiki Rukia, Ayasegawa Yumichika, Madarame Ikkaku, Matsumoto Rangiku, Kurosaki Ichigo, Kurosaki Isshin
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Marriage Proposal
Summary:

Renji asks for life advice and finds most of his friends unqualified to give it.

soc_puppet

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Current Mood: flirty

forestofglory

Since it's more than halfway through the year I started to write a reflection on my reading goal for the year: "Read Joyfully" But I found I didn't have much to say about it other than it turns out its easier to engage with new to me fiction when I actually get enough sleep.

However I do have some thoughts on things I've read and watched recently to share:

The Truth Season 3cases 9 and 10 — The last two cases, I’m sad that this is over now! This was so, so much fun! The second to last case featured my favorite costumes of the whole show in show with many excellent costumes. This really a fairly frivolous show but I love it so much! (Content note: the final case involved a dead kid)

Mu Guiying Takes Command ep 1-4— I wanted to love this. It is an adaptation of The Generals of the Yang Family, a story dating back to at least the Ming Dynasty that features women in command of the military. The FL is very badass. However I got fed up with how childish both the leads were acting.

Also this was released in 2012 which isn’t really that long ago but it feels like a whole different era.

Medieval Textiles across Eurasia, c. 300–1400 by Patricia Blessing, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Eiren L. Shea— This is a novella length overview of the topic. About 80 pages with a lot of pictures. I liked how it tied together such a big area and a long time period. Zooming out helped me put the stuff I know about (Chinese textiles, mostly Tang dynasty) into a larger context. I read it for the FTH biography I’m creating on Liao textiles.

A Song for You & I by Kay O'Neill— My friend Maureen, who is a children’s librarian, recced this graphic novel by the author of the Tea Dragon Society books in her most recent newsletter. And I’m glad she did because I haven’t been keeping up with recent releases and this was really good. It's a very gentle story that’s kind of coming of age with a lot of travel. One of the characters has a flying horse! The art is really good. I kept stoping to admire the color gradients. Just a very lovely book.

Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliott— Reading a A Song for You & I reminded me that my library has lots of graphic novels and I checked out a whole pile of them including this one. Please Be My Star is a YA romance featuring teens putting on a play. It was very cute though once or twice I got a little too much second hand embarrassment.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born ep 1-4— This kdrama sounded so exactly my thing. It’s got preforming arts, tons of women, and crossdressing girls! It’s also very pretty and well done. So I’m baffled as to why after four episodes all I feel about it is “meh”

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umadoshi

We made it to the little market down the road for the second week running and found the first vendor we visited down to his last several boxes of raspberries, so we bought two and headed back home. First raspberries of the season!

(I think yesterday was the first time I ever actually stopped and noticed why raspberries are called that.)

Reading: In non-fiction, I'm still reading through Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.

On the fiction front, last week I read Cameron Reed's The Fortunate Fall, relatively recently (and finally!) reissued under her current name after its first life as an award-winning SFF novel under her deadname literal decades ago. (I believe her upcoming novel is her first since this one!) It didn't actually hit my emotional buttons very hard (which isn't indicative of how anyone else might react), but it's beautifully constructed and executed. I see why it's so beloved by so many people. ^_^

I also read We Are All Completely Fine (Daryl Gregory), which I didn't realize was a novella until I started reading, so it went by pretty quickly. Interesting horror worldbuilding, although other than the characters' specific histories it's almost entirely hinted at or nodded to; I, at least, came away with almost no actual idea of what's actually going on on a larger scale.

And I read the new Murderbot story ("Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy") that Martha Wells released for the show finale (note that Murderbot itself isn't actually present in the story).

Watching: No Leverage this week, I don't think.

scruloose and I have agreed to switch this to an "I watch this when I feel like it, and if they're around and feel like it, they'll watch with me" show rather than one we're Watching Together. They enjoy it, but don't feel a burning need to see every episode.

I kind of wonder if I haven't been started a show on my own for so long because I'm sort of subconsciously waiting to be able to watch the rest of Justice in the Dark whenever the whole thing is subbed somewhere.

We've seen the Murderbot finale, and I'm awfully glad the show's been renewed.

Beyond that, the two of us have now watched the very first episode of Silo, having had good luck with Apple SFF shows. I haven't read the books, so I know almost nothing about it.

(I have food stuff to talk about, but I think I'll call this a post and hope to write more later.)

Current Mood: okay

thawrecka

I finished my reread of Bleach and I've now watched through episode 273, which I think means I've watched about 80 episodes of Bleach in a couple of weeks. Unhinged behaviour. I think for the most part the animation of the lust arc was pretty good! Captured a lot of the feeling of reading it, though it was faintly amusing they didn't show the exact moment of Ichigo stabbing Ishida, which blunted that impact a little. It had not ever occurred to me before that Ulquiorra's final attack on Ichigo was because he was moved by Orihime desperately wanting Ichigo not to kill Ishida, but I feel like that's the implication in the anime, and I'm willing to internalise that interpretation of it. It certainly works with the things Ulquiorra says just before he fades away (oh man, and with Orihime stepping forward to try to grab his hand a moment too late, that always gets me; tbh the arc is equally good for Ulquiorra/Orihime or Ichigo/Orihime).

Back to the rest of the fights and blergh Yammy. Not that I dislike what the manga does with Yammy, but the thing with this whole arc being so long in the manga and yet the anime expands it even more is that sometimes the anime gives an entire fight scene to something briefly touched over in the original and it's often kind of boring.

Like everyone else on the planet I have now seen KPop Demon Hunters. It's cute! I see why half a dozen people I follow on Tumblr are now gaga for it. It commits to its premise 100%. Sony animation is doing some real interesting stuff and making some fun choices.

silver_sun

Title: Caught on the Tides of Life.
Chapters: 3/4
Fandom: Heroes (2022) ("Shuo Ying Xiong Shei Shi Ying Xiong" (说英雄谁是英雄))
Rating: general
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Di Feijing & Lei Chun, Di Feijing and Qi Shaoshang
Characters: Di Feijing, Qi Shaoshang and Wang Xiaoshi (breifly) Lei Chun mentioned a lot (Di Feijing misses his sister)
Additional Tags: Canon diverent AU - for Di Feijing at least, hurt/comfort,

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

The weather clears in two days as Qi Shaoshang had thought it might, and as the morning of the second day arrives he makes ready to leave.

While Di Feijing knew the day had to come, he finds himself feeling a little lost, even rather melancholy about how things will be from now on. The lack of plans of his own, the directionlessness of it all, of a future, seemingly without purpose, feels like an increasingly heavy weight.

Not that he will admit that to anyone. Not that he will even permit them to guess.

( Although Spring is Approaching... )

shipperslist

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mekare

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soc_puppet

1) Intro to Sociology was successfully dropped, not long after I got home from taking the first class. That setup (the extremely packed schedule plus a super strict teacher) was not for me.

2) I've had some mild financial bullshit with college, but hopefully it's well on its way to being all sorted out.

3) All of my Speech homework for this week? I accidentally did last week 😂 Honestly, much better than the other way around.

4) In less college related news, I finally got my car back from the shop 😭 It took more than a week to get my internal fans fixed, but I am not dealing with summer around here without AC. Especially for thirty minute drives and little to no shade parking.

5) I finally finished properly outlining my first story for Sot69 this year 👀 I am pleased with what I've come up with and how I'm getting the characters into position! I'm really looking forward to actually writing it now 😃