Super Quick Recommendation:

Super quick recommendation:

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.

I gobbled it up, cover to cover, in about 6 hours. It has everything: space, women being awesome, a lovely and supportive marriage, friendships, a historical setting with a twist, bits that make me cry, bits that make me cheer (internally), a moment where I said out loud "EAT SHIT" to the surprise of my spouse who was watching TV at the time, characters of color, Jewish characters, people learning to be compassionate to each other and support each other, solidarity, a great plot, characters who like math, and SPAAAAAAACE.

This book is GREAT and I'm glad I had time to read it. It has sequels too.

I attempt a more coherent recommendation soon but suffice to say YES go check out THE CALCULATING STARS by MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL

Pure Dead...

This series was so fun and so weird. Kind of Addams Family. Very weird. There is this sort of kitchen sink magic going on in the setting.

The mom is an aspiring witch (she isnt very good). Brother is a coder/hacker (not really also these books are like from the 90s). Sister actually does do some magic. Their nanny is secretly incredibly competent & also is great at magic (secretly). So is the baby. Also they have a pet dragon who is a moody teen. Also at one point in the series the Italian mafia shows up??? And there are clones but they're tiny. Also a spider who wears bright pink lipstick. Also this series taught me the symptoms of rabies?? Also also also... this is just such a weird series and I love it a lot. I think the actual The Devil shows up at one point.

state of the bookshelf 7/29/23

Reading

The Archive Undying (Emma Mieko Candon)

At His Countess's Pleasure (Olivia Waite)

Mycroft and Sherlock (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse)

Mystery on the Blue Train (Agatha Christie)

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Olivia Waite)

Carpe Juguluum, Maskerade, the Last Continent (Pratchett)

Recently finished

If Found Return to Hell (Em X Liu) - I liked it!

Ghost Talkers (Mary Robinette Kowal) - I loved it!

Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) -> I watched part of the recent movie adaptation after finishing the book and I'm super interested in the changes that the movie makers made :O :D

Thief of Time

After the Wedding (Courtney Milan)

Have you read these books? Do you have book thoughts to share? Tell meeeeeeee

Book shelf clean out: young wizards

I loved this series! I don't know where my copy of the 1st book went but the others are on their way to the library bookstore, and I hope they find a new home there

It was hard to say bye to these books (but I plan to get the new millennium editions in ebook soon... and i need the space). I read them when I was in high school and college.

They're really excellent, set in Our World (not fantasy whatever land). They remind me in some ways of Terry Pratchett's work--not the setting or voice, but in the underlying ethos of the work. Although the characters go through difficult things (big warning for A Wizard's Dilemma), the world overall feels... kind?

More things to love about this series

Hispanic & queer representation, if you pay attention. In other, more recently-written series, these aspects of the characters might have been played up. In this series, those aspects are still present but more subtly. I actually like this because it's more fitting with my experience of the world. It also serves the story itself better and allows the characters' choices and actions to be the focus of the story.

Even in the case of the antagonists, the characters are... They extend civility and understanding to the antagonists, but they don't veer into "all-forgiving hero" territory. The story doesn't get into really black-and-white good-and-evil morality, but it isn't that tiresome "everyone sucks enjoy your undifferentiated grey." The heroes are heroic because of how they choose to treat others.

I love it when stories say "the way you treat others does matter." Kindness is repaid with kindness.

The styles of magic are cool too! I think many people have read "this character has a connection with plants and growing things" magic before. One of the other characters has a connection with mechanical and technical things! There's a scene in one of the books where he communes with, I think it's an airplane? And he can feel its eagerness to be flying, its fierce joy in speed and movement. I think that's lovely.

There are some good jokes in there, like the pig!

If you love space and astronomy, you'll probably like this series :) Especially the later books.

If you like alien cultures (and more traditional fantasy other-cultures) you'll probably like this seriies

Overall I just really enjoy these books and recommend them okay byeeee

THE MURDERBOT DIARIES: A Fan Animation

Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, and German.

In early 2021, as talk of a Murderbot Diaries adaptation was underway, fans of the series started asking each other questions like, "What would we want to see from an adaptation of our favorite book series?" and "Wouldn't it be cool if this or that scene was animated?" and "Hey, don't YOU know some things about animation?" and "What if a bunch of fans got together to make a Murderbot fan animation?"

Two years of teamwork later, the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project presents our labor of love: a fully realized animation adapting scenes from the first four novellas into a trailer, dedicated to showcasing everything we love about the story of our favorite rogue SecUnit.

Make sure to leave a like and share the video if you enjoyed our animation! And tell us what you liked about the video on our social media:

Ask the team on Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube

CREDITS

TheSteelChimera @thesteelchimera - Voice of Murderbot, Production Coordination, Script

Alex from Mars @imaginariumgeographica - Voice of ART Kebi/SpiralofDragon @spiralofdragon - Voice of Mensah, Character Design

Verso - Voice of Ratthi, Social Media

Kes @kesbeacon - Voice of Gurathin

brokenRAmodule @broken-risk-assessment-module @contakaidigon - Production Coordination, Backgrounds, Animation, Script, Storyboard, Character Design, Editing, 3D, Sounds & Music

theash0 @theash0 - Production Coordination, Animation, Editing, 3D, Graphics & Effects

Cephei - Backgrounds

ChimaeraKitten @chimaerakitten - Backgrounds, Graphics & Effects

Jude - Backgrounds

Livyatan @groovyleviathan - Backgrounds, Character Design Lue - Backgrounds, Animation

Nirelaz @nirelaz - Backgrounds, Animation, Lighting, Sounds & Music

sometimesihaveideas @sometimesihaveideas - Backgrounds, 3D, Sounds & Music

TechnicalToad - Backgrounds

Vanessa - Backgrounds, 3D

Alex van Gore @alex-van-gore - Animation, Storyboard, Lighting, Sounds & Music

audzilla - Animation, Lighting, Graphics & Effects

Mar @souldagger - Character Design

Sound & Music References

Drop in recommendation

I read the Heart Test by Helen Hoang tonight and it was really good.

Emotionally harrowing in some parts*, but I found the HFN/HEA conclusion extremely satisfying. I cried and cheered and urgently wished for a specific character to be launched into the sun

More detailed thoughts to come but! Another recommendation

Spoilers below for what made it harrowing (not detailed, just like in the form of content warnings)

Parental death. Ableism. Suicidal ideation. Austistic burnout following masking. Cancer (character had testicular cancer innpast year)

Oh and there are sex scenes! Those aren't harrowing but JSYK. They're nice sex scenes though.