Life updates: I have a post-paxlovid rebound case of covid – lots of sniffling and body aches and low fever. It’s exhausting.

What I’ve Read
Xenoethnography series by Therrae (Dasha_MTE) https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458 - 408K - This long sprawling series is the ultimate in outsider POV – Kim is an anthropologist who takes a job to study Transformers, in as realistic and thoughtful a way as possible. I don’t know this canon, so there are probably some bits that are going over my head, but Therrae is also just clearly so invested in writing these aliens as alien, from their mech bodies to their mindset to their religious beliefs, and I really love it. It’s great, and I had read it before (tho I am not sure I actually read the finished updates when they came out summer 2022). It’s great, highly recommend.

Banners from the Turrets by DesdemonaKaylose, neveralarch, towards_morning Tranformers fic - 249K "A collection of AUs predicated on the thought that Megatron remembered Rung after all those years, after that brief of an encounter, because, well... that day in Maccadam's, Megatron might have fallen a little bit head over heels."

Mira’s Last Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold – Mixed feelings on this Penric and Desdemona entry. This is the second of three stories focusing on Penric meeting and courting an older woman he meets On the Job, and they have great chemistry. This book finds them in the middle of running to safety with her brother, and disguising themselves to pass as travelers until they can get to the protection of a nearby lord. The key element of this book is that Penric crossdresses in a brothel, channeling one of the older personalities attached to his demon, the courtesan Mira. Mind you, I would be wildly into looking at gender and sex work in this world, Bujold has done some cool stuff, and Mira is portrayed as a clever older woman who enjoyed her work and thrived, but the book kind of bends over backwards to show us that Penric didn’t go “too far” and overall I found it a bit judgey.

What I’m Reading
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - static, too sick to read
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static, too sick to read
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer – Static


What I’ll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things

Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe

Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss , Aphorisms of Kerishdar