storbarnsförälder

Short Stories in all formats Rob read me Alix E. Harrow's "A Witch's Guide to Escape" and it made me cry buckets but it was very very good. It's about a librarian.

He also read me the Murderbot prequel story, "Compulsory," which was lovely. It's about a murder machine.

I read Naomi Kritzer's "Bits" for free online. It was charming. I was delighted. It's about sex toys.

I finished Naomi Novik's Buried Deep collection, which I acquired for the Temeraire story but I'm enjoying the transpirate one and others too. "Seven Years From Home" will need rereading a few times to understand it but that's a plus point in my book - also true of the Teapot story. But Seven Years is devastating and the teapot one wasn't. The final story is a taster for her next book, apparently, and I am indeed keen to read more on that universe. And there was a Scholomance story and I want to read more in that universe too, I know Eldest Offspring has them in paperback.

"For He Can Creep" by Siobhan Carroll. I loved this and dug out the Cat Jeoffrey poem for Rob to read as a result. I don't think he has yet though.

Ebooks The Duke At Hazard by KJ Charles. It's Georgette Heyer's Quiet Gentleman but gayer. I suspect it would still be good if you didn't know the Heyer but it's hilarious if you do. And there was only one bed.

XKCD volume 0* - I'd read all of these before but it was nice to remember the old ones.

The Vorkosigan Companion edited by Lillian Stewart Carl and John Helfers -- usually Rob gives me Vorkosigan books as soon as they come out, and he went to huge trouble to get me "Winterfair Gifts", but I only discovered that this existed and he had a copy in the last week of October this year. I'm very excited to have found it. The preface and first section by Bujold are very interesting and really change my idea of how the story arc is structured; I'll definitely read it again before I next read the series (most years, in case you're wondering; I don't think I've gone 12 months without reading a Vorkosigan story since I was introduced to them). Most of the rest seems to be essays/articles by individuals about a single aspect of the series -- technology, romance, a single book -- and I enjoyed it but it used rusty parts of my brain so it was slow going. I'm going to try to pay attention to when each one was published next time I read the series. I didn't realise Ethan of Athos was 1986. That's huge.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - This is, I guess, a coming of age novel? I really liked it. It's setting the scene for a whole world, I think, and there could be a million books set in that world, which I would read cheerfully. I enjoyed the grammar.

The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E. McKenna -- I read this in a day, which is an amazing feeling I've missed for years, and I enjoyed it greatly. It was easy and interesting and I liked the people.

Audiobooks Relistening: Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. Curse of the Pharaohs. The Mummy Case. The Lion in the Valley. This is all re-listening to very familiar things.

Ongoing listening: Bessel van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score -- I'm listening to this really slowly, along with Rob, and it's tough going. But the audiobook reader has a soothing, calm voice. Not as good as the man who reads Murderbot, but soothing. I've finished chapter ten and eleven this month.

New beginnings: Akala's Natives: Race and class in the Ruins of Empire which I'm enjoying greatly. I had no idea who Akala was before the Grenfell fire but I really admire him now. This is a very informed and informative personal look at race and class in mainly Britain.