Category Archives: Reviewettes

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Linkity limbers up

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Congrats to Angeles G, who won As Spring Rain (2nd ed) by Valentina Heart!

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Reading Update
Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal: The Art of Transforming a Life into Stories by Alexandra Johnson. Very good book about keeping a journal or diary, with writing exercises (some of which I tried and was pleasantly surprised by) and excerpts of what writers noted for journaling and memoir writing had to say about how the process enhanced their lives. Notes the author, “Successful journals break the deadlock of introspective obsession.” Yes, that. That’s what I aspire to.
A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman. Another lovely, lyrical look at journal keeping from Hinchman, who avoids “the deadlock of introspective obsession” (Alexandra Johnson) by observing and drawing her surroundings and keeping her writing style concrete, nearly brusque.
Making & Keeping Creative Journals by Suzanne JE Tourtillott. I enjoyed looking at the drawings and pictures of bookbinding and the artistic journal projects created for the book. I remain unconvinced about using two leather work gloves to bind a journal (or book of any sort).
Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch. Very good, very absorbing, very sad story about an NHL enforcer and how CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) most likely paid a role in his demise. To me, the really tragic thing was how ineffectual and toothless all the checks and balances that should’ve helped him turned out to be… and how none of that has changed.

“You better not be talking trash about my tail, Mom!!” -Chaos

Erm. Pay no attention to that short, kinky tail up there then! 😉

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes, Tales of the Neighborhood

One of those times linkity doesn’t really have a title because I couldn’t think of one

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Congrats to Yvette, who won Tempting the Stars (Red Dragon #3) by Becky Black!

Congrats to Alder, who won Axel’s Pup (Werewolves & Dragons #1) by Kim Dare!

Photos from My Neighborhood

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Reading Update
Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway. Ok paranormal romance about a woman who moves to Pierre, South Dakota, to get away from an “unhealthy influence” who’d encouraged her “delusions” that magic was real. After she gets elected as coroner, she discovers maybe she isn’t quite as delusional as she thought… This book seemed to be trying to cram in an awful lot of plot and subsequently felt like it was all over the place.
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Very good, very thoughtful book about becoming more aware of our place in nature, starting with the tiny bits of nature available in the cities in which so many of us live. Haupt uses the example of crows throughout the book to illustrate both that our environmental balance is dangerously out of whack (allowing a few dominant species such as crows to thrive as more sensitive species decline) and that nature, even if it’s “just” crows, persists wherever we are.
Chasing the Light: The Cloud Cult Story by Mark Allister. I really have no idea what to say about the book, just because I love this band so much. And I knew that their music and shows have affected me deeply, but until I read this book, I had no idea how profoundly they’ve affected others. The transformative, healing power of music? This is it. You can actually listen to the entirety of my favorite album of theirs, Light Chasers on YouTube. If 16 songs is too much, please at least try “There’s So Much Energy in Us” and “Room Full of People in My Head”.
A Life in Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal by Hannah Hinchman. I picked this up at a used bookstore over the weekend and am well pleased that I did. It’s a delightful read about both using words and sketches in one’s journal, as tools to provide insight and aid observation. I jotted down a number of quotes from it and can see myself revisiting its exercises when I need journaling inspiration. If you read this book, make sure you do so in a format that allows you to see all the author’s drawings integrated with the text throughout.

*intent pose of intentness* -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Late night linkity

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Randonymity

  • We’re having a burst of unseasonably warm weather, which we’ve much appreciated. I think it was about 70F warmer this past Tuesday than the previous one! Of course, there’s still a decent chance we’ll have more winter.
  • Art Materials in Uptown Minneapolis doesn’t mess around:

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Reading Update
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Very good urban fantasy about a Londoner whose act of compassion slips him from his world down between the cracks to the dark and dangerous world of London Below.
Unbound (Ex Libris #3) by Jim C Hines. Pretty good continuation of this contemporary fantasy series – at least this one didn’t end on a near-cliffie like the previous book.
The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right Size by Julia Cameron. The book’s basic concept is using writing as a sort of mindfulness meditation to help you discover productive and unproductive patterns in your life, diet, etc. While I found the chapter on Morning Pages to be quite useful, as well as some tidbits from other chapters, overall I kept getting hung up on two things. First, the author isn’t a therapist, doctor, dietician, etc, although she did provide common sense advice: be more aware of what and why you eat, eat healthy things, add exercise to your life. Second, many parts of the book seemed triggery, from the perspective of someone who went through (successful) eating disorder treatment 25 years ago. When I realized that, I skimmed the rest, then put the book away.

“Basking. Go away, please.” -Chaos and Mayhem

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Linkity is sleepy in anticipation of springing forward

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Reading Update
The Complete Guide to Living Well Gluten-Free: Everything You Need to Know to Go from Surviving to Thriving by Beth Hillson. Even though I’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease for nearly 18 years, I still like to brush up my skills and strategies periodically. This book was ok for that. Unfortunately, I found the style/voice more annoying than helpful at various points – I’m a basically optimistic person, but relentlessly cheerful people exhaust me, even in text, apparently. Also, when the author discussed other health issues that those with celiac disease might be more prone to, I was surprised that neither B-12 deficiency or microscopic/lymphocytic/collagenous colitis were mentioned.

“Mount Appliance is a little taller than we anticipated and we need help getting down! Probably this is all your fault, Mom!!!” -Mayhem

“Woe is we. Woe.” -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Of linkity and appliances

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Randonymity

  • Being an adult means new appliances (cooktop and wall oven) are very exciting! 🙂

“We claim Mount Appliance for the black kitties!!” -Chaos and Mayhem

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Reading Update
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I read the first several chapters, then couldn’t continue because the writing was so repetitive. Plus there doesn’t seem to be anything in the book that you couldn’t learn simply by reading all the chapter subheadings via “Look Inside!” on Amazon. And if you do that, you avoid all the repetition!

Mayhem – stoned on socks?! Possibly even drooling…

 

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

It’s linkity time! Do you know where your space probe is?

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Congrats to Dianna, who won Chyna Doll (Horizons #4) by Mickie B Ashling! Chyna Doll will be released by Dreamspinner Press on February 23.

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Reading Update
Mario Lemieux: The Final Period by Mario Lemieux & Tom McMillan. Interesting, coffee table style autobiography of Le Magnifique that was heavy on the photos, light on text. I was perfectly ok with that. Of course, after this was published in 1997, Lemieux made another comeback, so this was actually not quite his final period.

“What?” -Mayhem

Ravelry project page.

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

It was a cold and linkity night

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Reading Update
Under the Skin (Ritual Crime Unit #1) by EE Richardson. Ok shortish paranormal thriller about a 50-something British detective inspector whose people are trying to track down someone misusing ritual magic to make shapeshifters. Throughout the story, I was distracted by the point of view character always being referred to by her last name, yet her coworkers were referred to by their first names. It was just enough for me to feel distanced from the story.
Midnight Blue-Light Special (InCryptid #2) by Seanan McGuire. I only read a few chapters, then set it aside to come back to and never bothered.

Behold the majestic short-tailed house panther in his native habitat! 🙂

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which I went to a third grade choir concert instead of putting much effort into linkity

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  • So true! (Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.)

Reading Update
Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne. Ok urban fantasy about Atticus O’Sullivan, a 2000 year old druid running an apothecary in Phoenix and hiding from an old enemy. I found Atticus to be kind of annoying, actually…
Discount Armageddon (InCryptid #1) by Seanan McGuire. Ok paranormal romance about a cryptozoologist living in New York City, trying to launch a ballroom dancing career, prove to her West Coast family she can live on her own, and help out the city’s cryptid/monster population. This had a couple of particularly amusing bits (the mice!), but I didn’t quite gel with the narrator.

*sniff sniff sniff* “Your woolly wooliness pleases me, sock.” -Mayhem

Sock without Mayhem (although that’s Chaos’s head and foot coming in frame):

Ravelry details.

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which it is another Linkity Friday and absolutely no one is surprised

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Congrats to Val, who won Secrets and Charms (Secrets #2) by Lou Harper!

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Reading Update
Foxglove Summer (The Rivers of London #5) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good continuation of this urban fantasy series, which finds Peter and Beverly Brook looking for missing children in pastoral rural England. Not rated “very good” due to an abrupt ending and some inadequately resolved questions.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Knitting, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity wishes you a happy new year

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Randonymity

  • This turned out pretty well – it’s a gift, for a late Christmas gathering later today:

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Reading Update
Down on the Farm (The Laundry Files 2.1) by Charles Stross. Good paranormal short in which Bob is sent to the Laundry’s psychiatric in-patient facility to investigate a patient complaint.
Equoid (The Laundry Files #2.9) by Charless Stross. Free online. Good paranormal horror short about Bob being sent forth to hunt for unicorns, which have rather more tentacles and carnivory than Bob (or the reader) expects. This won the Hugo for Best Novella this year.
Overtime (The Laundry Files #3.5) by Charles Stross. Good short paranormal holiday story about Bob working overnight in the office on Christmas Eve. Of course he doesn’t have a quiet night.
The Rhesus Chart (The Laundry Files #5) by Charles Stross. Good paranormal horror thriller in which computational demonologist Bob discovers what seems to be a nest of vampires, except everyone he works with is convinced that vampires can’t exist. While this didn’t end with a cliffhanger, it did end with me exclaiming, “Wait, what?!” and looking for additional pages…
Halting State (Halting State #1) by Charles Stross. Weird but good scifi novel about a crime (or not) that may (or not) have occurred inside a virtual reality game. It’s told in second person (to give you the feel of playing a game, I think) from the alternating perspectives of three people who are trying to figure out what happened (or didn’t). Definitely took me a bit to get used to the unusual storytelling mode.
Rule 34 (Halting State #2) by Charles Stross. Rule 34: “If it exists, there is p0rn of it. No exceptions.” Good scifi thriller about memes, spam, and life in the surveillance state, told in alternating second person (mostly) from three main points-of-view, although the POV number ratchets up toward the end. While there’s no POV character overlap with the first book, one of the main POV characters played a significant role in the first book. Again, it took me a while to get used to the storytelling mode, but once I did I was immersed.

“More socks! Are you feeling ok, Mom?” -Mayhem

And without Mayhem: