silveronthetree put her finger on the pacing issue in the road trip story, which requires some rewriting, but for the better, I think, even if it makes the story even longer. Sigh. I feel like I won't get anything done on yuletide until I've squared this away, but I guess we'll see.

***

Since I didn't do what I'm reading Wednesday, let's just go with it for today:

What I've just finished
Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach, which I liked but didn't love. Too much time on weird smells and surgery (about which I am very squeamish) and not enough time on stuff that was more interesting to me, like the submarine stuff.

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood, which I wanted to like more than I did. Too much of the author in it, or maybe I just didn't find her that charming, and what even was the whole Michael Jackson death hoax interlude? I mean, I get that in a book about how to fake your death, celebrity death hoaxes are relevant, but that was just weird and went on too long. Still it was some interesting stuff.

Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley. Sequel to The Rook, and just as enjoyable, if focused on two new characters, with Myfanwy serving a supporting role. I will note that there was some serious eye injury/surgery happening that I had to skip over because I have a giant squick about that, but otherwise, I think O'Malley does a good job with his heroines, and neither of them gets distracted by romance, which was nice, considering where I expected things to go (I was kind of shipping Odette and Felicity by the end tbqh).

What I'm reading now
Because the NYPL is still fucking with me, Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig became available this weekend, so I started that. And it was just with starting it that I realized that the kid in these books is the Greg Grunberg character in TFA, which...doesn't seem to fit at all? But okay. I do like that his mom is also a badass Rebel pilot, just like Poe's. Lady pilots for the win!

I'm not very far into it, and I mostly picked it up because I was assured it was about Han and Chewie freeing the Wookiees from slavery, but I haven't gotten to that point yet. Otoh, ♥Leia♥ I'm very interested to see more of her relationship with Mon Mothma and if she finally learns about Padme. (And yet again, where the hell is Luke? Why is he always separated from the main narrative? It just makes me annoyed.) I still wish Rae Sloane would make better choices, but she's fantastic to have around even as an antagonist. I'm withholding judgement on the Vader cult for the moment - it makes sense, but we'll see where it goes.

What I'm reading next
Again, just after I started Life Debt, the NYPL graced me with A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (which I keep calling "Our Man in Moscow" for some reason), so that's next!

And speaking of Star Wars tie-ins that should exist, which we weren't but go with me here, last night I was imagining the year Obi-Wan and Satine spent on the run together during whatever Mandalorian Civil War was occurring at the time (they seem to have a lot of them and I haven't cared enough to go searching it out) and why isn't there a book about that?

Also, I was thinking about how Satine should have survived (as with Ventress and Ahsoka, I refuse to accept that she didn't) and then Rex could have gone to her with news of the chip while on Mandalore and, well, say what you want about Satine (though I might have to fight you if you do, even if she wouldn't approve), she would have fought for 1.8 million Mandalorian clones to be freed from slavery. I am just saying. Where is THAT story?

And heh, this song. Someone's made the Anakin/Padme vid to it, right?

***