the mermaid cafe

ZOMG THIS DAY.

So today was my last day in the office before being out for two weeks and you'd think no one could do anything without me around (I mean, no one is indispensable; I just work for some very helpless people), so I was running all day, trying to get stuff done so that it wasn't hanging around when I got back.

It didn't help that I woke up at 4:30 this morning and then didn't get back to sleep until sometime after 6:30 and my alarm goes off at 7:05. *frowns* At least I had a dream where Tim and Kon were courting and sparking?

Then I had to stand my whole commute home! But at least I don't have to do it again for two whole weeks! woohoo! When I got home, I made the dough for the fig cookies - it is the easiest dough ever - and now it's in the fridge since it has to chill overnight, and tomorrow there will be cookies! And I won't have to go out into the frigid weather. *happy sigh*

Anyway, it's Wednesday, so books!

What I've just finished
Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse, which I liked but didn't love. Not enough Rey or Finn for me. Some great Leia moments, though. And I do love the constant thread of Poe Dameron thirst that runs through the ST-era novels. #it's funny 'cause it's true

The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, the Lady Astronaut novels by Mary Robinette Kowal. I enjoyed them! I found them compelling to read even if I didn't need that much detail about dealing with e. coli in space.

What I'm reading now
A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy, which I am enjoying tremendously. Is it historically accurate? Not particularly. Is it full of entertaining banter and have I laughed out loud? It sure is and I sure have.

What I'm reading next
I am burying myself in books and Bat-fic so I don't get inadvertently spoiled for TRoS. All I really care about is that they do right by Carrie Fisher ("spoken like a true feminist" according to boss2 when I said that), but like, TLJ made me so angry for so many reasons that I just want them not to fuck it up for Leia since they waited too long to let her carry a movie. Please DO NOT spoil me for anything! I am seeing it on Saturday and I would like to not know anything so I can just experience it for myself. (I'm too tired to have the conversation about spoilers and spoilerphobes and why I care for some things and not for others, so please just don't. At some later date, maybe, we can rehash that dead horse for shits and giggles but not right now.)

***

It finally seems to be warming up - I didn't wear my big huge heavy coat today and that wasn't a mistake! I am so tired of winter weather.

My Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse blu-ray arrived last night and I was too tired to watch it, even though I was eagerly anticipating its arrival. I was in bed by 9:30. And then I was awake from 3:30 to about 5-ish, because ugh. My knee and ankle are still healing after that fall two weeks ago and last night they were particularly painful. Today I wore my keds since I can use the ankle wrap with them and it was finally warm enough and there was no lingering snow or ice around. Sigh. But I'm definitely looking forward to watching it soon. #precious spiderbabies

Let what I'm reading Wednesday commence:

what I've just finished
Star Wars: Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston, which I enjoyed a lot. I thought it did a nice job with Padme, a character who makes some decisions I have a lot of trouble understanding, and also the handmaidens, while also showing us the beginnings of Padme's very important relationships with Bail, Mon, and Mina Bonteri.

( spoilers )

While I wish they'd made Padme/Sabe textually canon in both directions, the subtext is unmistakable and also very pleasing to me. I also enjoyed how nobody has any time for Rush Clovis, who is treated exactly as he should be here, given his own behavior. As I said last week, this book really supports my feelings that Padme's most important relationships - and her romantic relationships - were mostly* with women prior to Anakin, and it could explain why she ignores the thousand red flags he sends up in AotC, if she hasn't actually dealt with dudes much before (I mean, it doesn't explain why she ignores all the murderizing, but I am just going to have to continue to accept that she does somehow). (It could also be part of her adrenaline junkie personality, which also comes through in this book, her thrill at being in the middle of the action even though she knows people are in danger.)

*I think it's interesting that her prime political mentors are Palpatine and Bail Organa here; it's a nice parallel to Anakin's mentors being Palpatine and Obi-Wan.

Anyway, skygiants has a nice write up here, and io9 also has a decent review.

what I'm reading now/next
I've tried a couple different books but they haven't held my interest in light my current all-consuming need to read Bat fic, particularly if Jason's return to the family is a little less terrible (e.g., he's found by someone in the family rather than the League of Assassins; Talia finds him and returns him posthaste rather than training him as an assassin and pointing him at Bruce; etc.), but also in general. Basically, stories about the Batfamily as a family are all I want to put in my eyeballs right now.

(Last weekend, I was really annoyed to discover JL/JLU is no longer on Netflix, nor is Under the Red Hood, and I was too lazy to dig out the dvds, but maybe this weekend? I tried one of the movies that was available but the voices were all wrong and I stopped.)

So that's my reading Wednesday. More details will be in the monthly recs! *g*

***

On Christmas Eve, I had a lovely dinner with my sister's family, and then there was a long, loud discussion of TLJ with my nephew (I believe I've mentioned this before, but Anthony will defend the prequels long and loudly, since they are the Star Wars he imprinted on as a little kid, and even though I disagree with him about them, I'm glad he enjoys them so much. Someone should, I guess. And hilariously, we're united in our defense of Anakin Skywalker against everyone else, though he has yet to watch TCW, though I've told him repeatedly that he should. I didn't tell him this, but he would fit right in on Tumblr with his fervent fangirling of Anakin and Obi-Wan.) and my niece's boyfriend, who is also a big Star Wars fan (of the OT variety; he was wearing a Boba Fett polo shirt). Neither of them liked it much at all, though they disagreed as to why, so it was interesting.

Christmas was also nice - it was good to see Victor, who is completely healed, and Nicki, who is still in a neck brace and has to go for physical therapy (also she still has fragments of glass in her hand, which the doctors say they'll leave there unless it starts causing a problem), but they're handling it well.

I received a bunch of Amazon gift cards and a cute dress and a fancy pitcher to make iced coffee. My brother is waiting for me to tell him what I need for the new place, so he didn't get me a birthday or a Christmas present. I'll have to think of something good. *g*

Yesterday, when I got home, I developed achy skin and chills, and I think I had a low grade fever, so I went to bed early. It was hard to get out of bed this morning - we're expecting a high of 26°F and a windchill in the single digits - but I managed. I have to go to the apartment tonight to meet the contractor - is it wrong I'm hoping he cancels so I don't have to make the trip? The walk is rough in the cold, but I could handle it if I don't have to go back out, but for now, I do the walk, spend an hour inside, and then have to walk back and schlep home. It's tiresome. And cold. I guess we'll see what happens.

Now it's Wednesday, so that means books!

What I've just finished
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey. ( spoilers )

What I'm reading now
Back to Fosse, where so far he couldn't get the rights to make a musical out of Chicago and he's passed up The Berlin Diaries, but now he's working on Sweet Charity. I'm interested in seeing how he finally gets back to those first two properties, but I'm also enjoying the discussion of how Sweet Charity came into being.

What I'm reading next
Probably The Girl in the Tower, which is the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale.

Which leads me to the part of the post where I list my favorite books of 2017:

• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, which is a beautifully written retelling of a Russian fairy tale.
• All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, which is probably the best thing she's written yet, about a family who perform miracles for pilgrims but can't seem to help themselves.
• The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman, which is about the aunts growing up (excluding the bits about the brother).
• Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, a darling story about a 12 yo witch who saves a castle.
• City of Miracles by Robert Bennett Jackson, the third book in the Divine Cities trilogy, which wraps the story up in a satisfying ending.
• Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner, another strong outing in The Queen's Thief series.

Honorable mention to 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which was a wonderfully charming read for a Sunday morning.

The best Star Wars books I read this year:
• Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, which is a coming of age novel for my favorite space princess (and also introduces Amilyn Holdo as one of her friends).
• Guardians of the Whills by Greg Rucka, in which Baze and Chirrut are totally the crankiest old married Force monks.

I didn't read a lot of comics this year, but I highly recommend DC's Bombshells, which features a team of all lady superheroes punching out Nazis in WWII, and the new Darth Vader by Charles Soule, which is set right after RotS. (I also still recommend the previous new Darth Vader comic by Kieron Gillen, which was set between ANH and ESB.)

***

My office is close enough to the scene of yesterday's attack that we heard the emergency services sirens, which of course got everyone on edge. I also have a few co-workers who bike to work and so I think know the area fairly well. When I was getting pizza for dinner last night, a kid came in and he was obviously well-known to the staff there and he was like, "my school was on lockdown! They just let us out a little while ago!" Eep! I'm sad for everyone who lost someone and everyone who was injured. I just don't have the words right now.

***

I keep thinking it's Thursday, but no, it's Wednesday, so books:

What I've finished
Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu. As always, Luke is off on his own adventures (I will never ever be 100% okay with how split off he always is in canon), but these are less Luke's adventures (though there is some of that) and more the hagiography of him (not including the first story, which is the story of Luke as a member of a gang con artists led by Obi-Wan, which is pretty funny but thankfully not what the rest of the book is like). It's an interesting tack to take, and once again leaves us mostly without his POV on stuff, which has to be a conscious choice but it's one I still don't understand.

For all that he's not my actual favorite (it's not his fault that Leia is so awesome), I have a lot of deep feelings about Luke Skywalker and I will fight you on his behalf at any time.

I feel like most of the stories here do get at why he's so great and why I love him so much (especially the one on the water planet and the one in the belly of the beast, but also the one after the Battle of Jakku, though I did have a little heart-in-throat moment when he was all blase about the ( spoiler ), and I will never ever tire of reading about the ridiculous lengths Skywalkers will go to rescue their droids. ♥♥♥ ( I guess this is a spoiler? ) Skywalkers love droids and droids love them back. ♥♥♥

( tangent about robot arms and also slavery )

So yeah, I enjoyed it and it's a quick read and Luke is great, yo. The better not fuck him up in the new movie or I will be pissed.

What I'm reading now
Still A Skinful of Secrets by Frances Hardinge, which I'm not loving but I do want to find out what happens even though I'm sort of flinching away. I need Makepeace to have something good happen soon, guys. I can't take the relentless bleakness of this story.

What I'm reading next
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

***

October 2017 writing roundup:

The Bonds That We Save (@AO3)
DCU/MCU; Peggy Carter, Etta Candy, Diana of Themyscira; g; 1,040 words
In which Peggy Carter meets Etta Candy.

I'm so glad people liked it. I enjoyed thinking about them teaming up and kicking ass a lot.

And work keeps interrupting so I'm gonna hit post now.

***

Last night, on the spur of the moment, L and I met up for dinner at the bar around the corner, and it turned out it was Bingo Night. I didn't even know bar bingo was a thing, but apparently it is, and so we played, and in addition to getting two free shots when the 'booze ball' came out (a different ball for each round), I won two bingos! Well, the first one I was playing L's card, so technically she won, and she got an adorable pink unicorn bubble gun as a prize. I won the last round, scoring a blackout! And $25 off the tab! It was stupidly fun, though two beers and two shots on a weeknight is not the brightest idea I've ever had.

And now it's time for What I'm Reading Wednesday:

What I've just finished
Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, which is a short story anthology that retells the story of the original Star Wars (A New Hope, if you must) from the POV of background/secondary characters. Some stories work much better than others, and it spends much too much time with the denizens of the cantina in Mos Eisley (though one of my favorite stories is the one about the lost clarinet or whatever it is called, and the variety of shenangians around it). I also really enjoyed the memo from the admiral that Vader chokes in the conference room, and the report from the stormtrooper with the dewback obsession, both of which are hilarious. There are a few clinkers - the mousedroid one was unreadable for me, and while I liked getting Beru's POV, her story didn't seem to fit at all, and I thought the writing for Biggs's story was way too overwrought.

Otoh, the Yoda section! Oh my heart. ( spoilers )

What I'm reading now
The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase #3). I admit, the way to my heart is definitely to have a Percy cameo at the start of every book. I do like that kid a lot. But this jumps right into the action and so far I'm enjoying it a lot.

What I'm reading next
I've got both The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman and All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater on the iPad, so probably those, but anything could happen!

***

I left work slightly early yesterday and today has been calmer, thankfully. I'm still dragging and my brain is on a bit of a time delay - why is sleeping so hard? even when I'm so tired? - but it's Friday and it's almost over.

Today, while I've been collating etc., I've been thinking about how in Leia, Princess of Alderaan, ( spoilers )

I really want to read that story without having to write it. You should get on that, stat.

***

I hope everyone who had a holiday weekend had a lovely one (and everyone who didn't had a lovely Monday, as much of an oxymoron as that seems to be).

Back at work today. Sigh.

But I spent Sunday at my sister's, and we played May I and I won both games! As my sister said, that NEVER happens. She was very suspicious, but really I mostly got lucky. I did a lot of keeping my options open and just taking the cards as they came. With a little help from jokers almost every hand.

And then last night, L and I had an early dinner and hung out, so that was fun.

I also read Leia, Princess of Alderaan, and enjoyed it very much, with only a few quibbles. ♥ORGANAS♥ I'm sure I'll talk more about it tomorrow for what I'm reading Wednesday.

I realized yesterday that I had all summer to catch up on the shows I was desperately behind on and I just...didn't. I don't know that I ever will. So I'm not sure what I'll be watching when new stuff starts. It's an interesting place to be. I miss being caught up and being able to talk about the stuff I'm watching, but I also like not being beholden to a show of an evening. I guess we'll see. Probably the only things I'll definitely be keeping up with regularly are Star Wars Rebels and Brooklyn Nine Nine.

In other TV news, I'm not feeling the guy they cast as Dick Grayson for Titans. He's not pretty enough and he doesn't even have the black hair/blue eyes naturally. Does he have a great ass? That is very important! Also, can he do flips and shit? Idek. Also also, learning that they've cast a 13yo as Raven was a needle-scratch moment. I mean. What. What is the plan there? And yet Anna Diop looks so good for Starfire!

So I have some concerns.

***

This whole thing where I don't sleep between 3 am and 5 am is not really working for me. I took a benadryl and even that wasn't enough to combat the itching for a while. Why do we need mosquitoes again?

On the plus side, I already had the high key "I'm going to be homeless come October 1!" freakout to L and she talked me down (...so I might catastrophize a little. I've actually gotten much better at not doing it over the years, but this whole thing really trips my anxiety wires), so I didn't freak out too much last night when I transferred $$$ to my checking account in order to cover the check for 10% of the down payment I'll be writing when I go to sign the contract tomorrow.

!!!!

It's still a tentative appointment at the moment (I will be confirming shortly - ETA: Confirmed! /eta), but yesterday afternoon I got a call from the mortgage broker, who was like, "Mike just told me you had an accepted offer. You didn't call and tell me!" (Mike is my lawyer. He works in the office next door to the mortgage broker.) and I said the realtor had told me not to until I had the signed contract, and she was like, "I like to get ahead of the game so you don't have to come in to sign stuff twice!" Especially since I have to take the LIRR to get there (the pitfalls of using people recced by family members who live on Long Island), which means leaving work at like 12:30 tomorrow. Eep!

Keep your fingers crossed, folks. This could be one step closer!

And since it's Wednesday, we've got books!

What I've just finished
Thick as Thieves by Megan Whelan Turner. I meant to reread the whole series before this but didn't get to it. I didn't really need to either, as it wasn't heavily dependent on previous books (...though I guess the Attolian's identity was? Though who else could it have been?). There was a lot more ersatz Assyrian poetry than I was expecting, ( spoilers )

So I definitely recommend it if you've enjoyed the series so far, and if you haven't read the whole series, I highly recommend it. The second book especially is AMAZING.

What I'm reading now
Aftermath: Empire's End by Chuck Wendig, since it came from the library. It's fine, I guess. It's mostly the events leading up to the battle of Jakku. We finally get more Mon Mothma POV and ( spoilers )

What I'm reading next
*hands*

***

Ugh, my period showed up yesterday, which should not have been unexpected but was. I guess I was hoping for another five months free of it. Sigh. I guess it explains some of the more random crying I did over the weekend, though.

Instead of watching the Rangers, who didn't deserve to win if they couldn't hold a lead or play with any sort of desperation when their backs were against the wall, I watched Brooklyn Nine Nine and enjoyed both episodes a lot (the party one more than the Amy one, but both had some hilarious stuff in them).

I also caught up on the first two episodes of this week's Steven bomb:

Steven Universe: Lion 4: Alternate Ending & Doug Out
( spoilers )

Anyway, that was a sweet half hour of tv.

And since it's Wednesday, let's talk about books.

What I've just finished
City of Miracles by Robert Bennett Jackson. SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. SO GOOD. If you haven't read this trilogy yet, you really should, because it's excellent all around - strong writing, well-rounded characters who make you care about them, interesting and thoughtful world building, interesting takes on religion and colonialism and political power and the way those things collide and impact everything, and kickass action scenes, too.

If City of Stairs was Shara's book, and City of Blades, Mulaghesh's, City of Miracles is Sigrud's book and so there's a heavy weight of sorrow about it, but I thought the ending was both surprising and inevitable and fitting. The fact that these books surprised me consistently - even when I figured some things out, other things didn't turn out like I thought they would, and that is a huge plus in my mind, because they always made sense but never felt rote or cliched.

Star Wars: Guardians of the Whills by Greg Rucka. ♥BAZE♥ ♥CHIRRUT♥ Ugh, I love them so much and they are so very married, I don't care what anybody says. And that shines through in this book, how much they love each other, and their hilarious old married couple bickering that paints a thin veneer over how deeply they care for each other. Also, I know this is a middle-grade book, but thumbs up to Rucka (and to the Star Wars universe in general, I guess) for making me super tense that ( spoilers ) I enjoyed it a lot. I also liked the little poems/mantras from the different religious/Force traditions at the beginning of each chapter - I liked how niJedha was a place of many faiths and many practices (and that the Empire tried to crush them all) - it felt like it did some nice expanding beyond the simple dark/light dichotomy the movies tend to deal in.

What I'm reading now
I guess I will go back to Siege now, and maybe finally finish up Bombshells vol. 3. And there's the TRC reread.

Speaking of Bombshells, I had to resurrect my DC LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES tag last night on hearing the news that DC is turning Dick Grayson into a fascist. That's right, Dick Grayson, canonically of Rromani descent*, is being turned into a neo-nazi in a summer comics event. It's like deja vu all over again. Ugh.

At least it appears to be an elseworlds kind of thing rather than actual main timeline bullshit, and they're already saying how the story is about him trying to right the wrongs he's committed rather than him doubling down on the genocide and murder, but even so. What the fuck. Why is this even a thing? What happened to the people who had the Joker turn on Red Skull when he learned he was a Nazi in the Batman/Cap team up mini? THE JOKER, PEOPLE. WHEN EVEN AGENTS OF CHAOTIC EVIL DON'T WANT TO TEAM UP WITH YOU, YOU KNOW YOU'RE TRULY THE WORST. COME ON. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SURGERY. Ahem.

*even if no one ever talks about it anymore

What I'm reading next
The new Queen's Thief book comes out next week, I think - Thick as Thieves, it's called - though it's a standalone about the Mede, not centered on Gen and Irene, according to the blurb anyway. I am excite!

In other news, I posted a story yesterday:

Stuck in the Middle with You (@ AO3)
Star Wars; Ahsoka, Anakin, & Obi-Wan; g; 2,105 words
"These are the flattest, saddest pillows I've ever seen."

"They are sufficient," Obi-Wan says. "You must have very particular pillow needs."

So I'm writing an Anakin/Ahsoka "there's only one bed!" story for silvertonthetree and we were talking the other night about it - I was trying to figure out where in the timeline to set it and where Obi-Wan would be that he wasn't with them on this mission, all of which is completely beside the point to the story! He only needs to be Sir Jedi Not Appearing In This Story, and yet I felt a need to work that out, and I said something like, now I kind of want the three of them stuck in that situation - no sexytimes, just three grumpy Jedi having to share a bed. And it kind of spiraled from there into this, which amused me a lot to think about and hopefully that translated into the writing. Obi-Wan flat out lying in the face of evidence to the contrary! Ahsoka having very particular pillow needs! Anakin just being happy to cuddle. *hands* I say this a lot, but maybe if people *cough*Obi-Wan*cough* had hugged him a little more often, he wouldn't have been so easily swayed to the dark side. I am just saying. Hugs make better heroes.

Speaking of The Team™ in ridiculous situations, these comic panels crossed my dash last night, and they are hilarious in every detail. The various states of undress! Obi-Wan's do as I say not as I do behavior! The fact that there's apparently a lady smuggler involved who owes him a favor *wink wink nudge nudge*! I might have to pick it up when it comes out.

***

Couple more Star Wars things:

= the Star Wars Rebels s4 trailer! ( spoilers ) I AM EXCITE! But also sad, because it's the last season of the show.

= Claudia Gray is writing another Leia book, and Ken Liu is writing a Luke book, and there will be both a Phasma book and a Phasma comic (good team on the comic - I don't think I'm familiar with Delilah Dawson, the writer of the Phasma book).

= and because it amused me, Hayden Christensen talking about sand. (Also a picture of him with an Ahsoka cosplayer.)

And here's a hilarious hockey link angelgazing sent me after the Rangers terrible loss in OT. That was a wild one. I can't even. The Rangers: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since forever. (and then the Mets lost on a walk off hit. Bah.)

In other news, an attempt to make some body balm sparkly has instead resulted in it making my skin blue. Um. At least it smells like chocolate? But unless the color bleed stops after it solidifies (as it has with lip balm, I have to say), what a waste of cocoa butter. Sigh. I'm just go gonna eat a sandwich, I guess.

And lastly, a poem:

Mating of Horseshoe Crabs
By Jenny Factor

Like fallen moons,
leather purses,
metals tumbled by the sea,
they blink the air in dazedly
along the arc of beach.
Then clumsy, slowly lumbering,
they somehow move their shells aside
so that one can get inside
the ample body of the other.
Then they lie on the pebble sheet,
shocked by the tender glowing place
beneath the battered surfaces,
the ocean's raw white flesh.
And then they go,
stacked crab boats,
tails slicing in the tide,
pushing off, adrift,
they ride the foamy currents
out so deep
that from my shore
I cannot see
the moment of unjoining.
How often have I gone in early morning
looking for the crabs in April winds?
How often have I reached a gentle finger
toward some beautiful shelled creature,
searching for the tender place,
the part that opens,
wanting till I cannot breathe
that slow joined ride
in ocean?

***

Bosses are all out at a management retreat today and tomorrow. Sweet, sweet freedom. *g*

***

iZombie: Heaven Just Got a Little Bit Smoother
Yay! This show is back! ( spoilers )

So I am definitely looking forward to this season. Here's an EW interview with showrunner Rob Thomas with some vague spoilers for s3 developments.

***

My blu-ray of Rogue One did arrive yesterday, so I sat down to watch it and it was...glitchy. Which was vexing. I was quite vexed. After a thorough cleaning it did finally play correctly, but by that point I was just annoyed, so it was harder to settle down and watch. *hands*

I still mostly stand by my initial thoughts, though some things I obviously came around on after some thinking and having things pointed out to me (e.g., Mon knowing just not saying Kenobi's name, though I will never be satisfied until I know what Mon knows about all the family secrets floating around) and I was much more easily convinced this time about Jyn's turnaround re: the rebellion. I'm not sure why it didn't quite work for me on first viewing, but it does now, so I'll take it.

Bodhi is still my fave and I want so much MORE for him. ( spoilers, I guess )

***

What I'm reading Wednesday:

What I've just finished
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, which I enjoyed. It's a snappy, compelling, heartbreaking and fascinating window into a very different life.

Wild Space: Star Wars (The Clone Wars) by Karen Miller, which is a tie-in novel to TCW, though no longer considered canon, I guess? Regardless, it's a strong origin story for Bail and Obi-Wan's friendship (<333), and if you enjoy "stranded and injured on a death planet" type h/c stories, you will like this. (That part went on a little long for me, but then again, that is not my particular preference of genres.)

There's also some good Anakin/Obi-Wan stuff (however you want to read it - Anakin can sense Obi-Wan from across the galaxy; there is also some emotional face-touching - so my "I don't ship it but I don't not ship it" stance is pretty intact; I could talk about this a lot more but I doubt anyone else is interested), and finally one plausible explanation for why Padme marries Anakin, which is to spite Obi-Wan for ordering her to break off the relationship. That's a motivation that resonates for me! (Again, I could talk about this a lot and how my lack of understanding of why she just ignores the numerous red flags to pursue the relationship does damage to the character imo. Young, in love, and off to war can overcome a lot, but the massacre of an entire village? I still don't understand her response to that.)

Otoh, I don't recall Anakin being as much of an asshole to Ahsoka on the show as he is in this book, so I was not well-disposed towards him through most of it. Nobody treats Ahsoka like that, buddy. Not even you.

What I'm reading now
Back to Hidden Figures. I feel kind of terrible at how I've been putting it down and picking it up, which makes for a very disjointed reading experience, but we are finally in the space race! John Glenn just landed safely, thanks to Katherine Jackson's calculations!

Also, I put aside DC Bombshells volume 3, so I'll get back to that at some point.

What I'm reading next
*hands* I have a couple more of those Clone Wars novels, which only take a couple of hours to plow through, and I also have some comics I bought when comixology had that sale, plus my ever expanding to-read list. May looks like it's going to be an exciting month for new releases - the Baze/Chirrut YA book by Greg Rucka, the next Queen's Thief book, the next Trials of Apollo book, River of Teeth, and of course, CITY OF MIRACLES, which I am anxiously awaiting.

***

And lastly, today's poem:

Kiss My Knuckles While I Hold Your Soul

I write beauty like light in glass,
fleeting and unique. I want to catch
your tears and put a stop to the sadness
that threatens to envelope us
and propel us into obscurity. So kiss my knuckles
while I hold your soul and let us see
what comfort we can give our aching hearts.

I told the world to cry diamonds
because that's how much pain is worth
and as your eyes drop I catch a gem,
note its radiance, 1.28 carats

of distress resting in my hand like thunder.

I smile into your mouth, my remedy
to your every malady, let my eyes
scream laughter and let my gaze fall
on you. You tilt your head back
and I bow my body down.

I take your fingers in mine and between
us we're clasping your soul so tightly
it begins to bleed. You say, look how I hurt.

I say, yes, but dear, most wisdom stems from pain.

~Laala Kashef Alghata

***

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.

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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?

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Last night when I got home, my cable was out completely, including internet, and the CSR was little help. He seemed convinced the splitter was the problem, but when I finally was able to unhook the connection from outside from the splitter and hook it directly to the modem, there was still no service, so. The cable guy is coming tomorrow night between 7pm - 8pm. I guess I have to vacuum the area thoroughly despite the proliferation of cords. Sigh.

Why did we give cable companies power over the internet too? They are terrible at everything and only getting worse while simultaneously charging ever more ridiculous prices for their shitty service.

Oho, I just got a robo call from them (or "Spectrum" as they're now calling themselves) and they're like, "there was an interruption in your area! Please check to see if your service is restored and if so, you may cancel your appointment!" Even though last night the dude was like, "We show no outage in your area." Of course, I am not at home, so I just did nothing and left the appointment intact, but if I have service when I get home, I will cancel it. Ugh. I hate them so much.

Anyway, that meant that I couldn't download my new comic this morning, so I had to use the 'secret' work wifi to do so. On the occasions when we've had visiting board members or other people who need to use the internet, the IT guys would never give me the password or any of the information. There was a lot of horrified gasping and metaphorical pearl-clutching about it. But a couple of months ago, it came up in conversation with the CIO and he was like, "but you should be able to use the wifi if you really need to," and I was like, "Um, no, the guys told me no." And he was like, "!!! Here are the directions and the password."

So I used it this morning for great... well. for personal reading material, anyway.

What I've just finished
Goldenhand by Garth Nix. I thought the pacing was weird, and again, I'm wondering how much of that is reading via ebook, because I feel like I say that a lot more now than I did when I was reading paper books. But the pacing was weird. ( spoiler ) I mean, I enjoyed it a lot! But the ending felt rushed to me. I was like, "How is he going to wrap this up when I'm 92% done?" etc.

In the Labyrinth of Drakes (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #4) by Marie Brennan, which I also enjoyed (I was glad her relationship with her brother got more page time here) but possibly I wanted more archeology and less dragons? Idek. I think I liked the third book best in this series. I mean, I recommend them if you enjoy Amelia Peabody, but I never feel quite emotionally engaged in these the way I did with the Amelias. (At least until Falcon at the Portal, which damaged my emotional investment so greatly that I still get angry when I think about it. Ahem.)

Ahsoka by EK Johnston. ♥AHSOKA♥ As I said in my goodreads review, if you love Ahsoka already, I think you will love this as much as I did? I was very pleased at this look at her growing up and growing into her new self, away from the Jedi and having to choose her own path, and how she comes to join the Rebellion and the choices that lead her there. ( spoilers )

If you don't love her, it's still a pretty solid Star Wars tie-in, though it starts a little slow, or rather, it does a lot of examining how Ahsoka feels on the first anniversary of the Empire, which I liked but as I said, if you're not there for character exploration, it might feel slow. It also incorporates the stuff Filoni et al. revealed about her last encounter with Anakin and Obi-Wan (and Maul) on Mandalore, so I guess that is canon now, though I would still like to see her riding a fucking huge wolf into battle.

I have a couple of minor quibbles: ( spoilers )

Also, in terms of canon fucking up my wsip, ( spoiler )

But overall, definitely recommended.

What I'm reading now
Nothing, as I finished the Lady Trent book on the train this morning.

What I'm reading next
Well, as mentioned above, I used the secret work wifi to download Darth Vader 25 to read at lunch, so probably that, and then who knows what I'll choose to start on my commute home? It is a mystery!

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I enjoyed both the Mets' and the Sharks' shutouts last night. Those results were most pleasing to me.

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The Flash: Invincible
( spoilers )

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What I'm reading Wednesday:

What I've just finished
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray, which I enjoyed immensely. It's set a few years before The Force Awakens (I'm not really sure how that timeline works, given some of the things presented in the movie) and it's Leia-centric, so I was predisposed to be generous towards it anyway. ( spoilers )

Alpha by Greg Rucka, which is, as advertised, "Die Hard" at faux!Disney World. It's fun, but I didn't love that the establishing scene for the 40yo main character involved him sleeping with a ~20 year old barista. Let's just say it doesn't predispose me to liking him as a person.

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher, whom you may also know as Ursula Vernon. I enjoyed this a lot, too. It's a very sensible retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." Bryony definitely gave me a Tiffany Aching sort of vibe, which you know I love, and also, ( spoiler ) I just wish we'd gotten a little more denouement. I wanted to see how Lostfarthing reacted to ( spoiler )

What I'm reading now
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, which is inspired by (a retelling of?) A Thousand and One Nights for a YA audience. (No, seriously, I am definitely thinking about that The Iliad-as-YA-dystopia idea again now.) I picked it up on the strength of the title, which is GREAT. I mean, I wish I had come up with a title that evocative, but it's also gotten some stellar reviews. I'm enjoying it so far, though I'm already kind of dreading the idea of it being a trilogy. I guess it has to cover all 1,001 nights? I don't know. I'm only about a quarter of the way in.

What I'm reading next
I have The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks, and actually planned to start it this morning, but for some reason, it will only show up in the Kindle app in horizontal mode (even though I have mine forever locked in vertical mode), and that makes it really hard to read (it's a graphic novel). I wish it had been available via Comixology, because their app for reading comics is so much better than the Kindle app is. I guess I will suck it up and try again when I'm done with The Wrath and the Dawn.

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In other news, I posted a story yesterday, huzzah!

A Thousand Words for Water (at AO3)
Star Wars; Rey, Finn, Poe, Luke, Leia, Jessika, Chewbacca, Artoo; g; 2,925 words
Chewie howls something that translates to, "Just throw her in and hope she floats," and Artoo trills in disapproval of that strategy. "She's a Jedi," Chewie replies. "She'll be fine."

I'm not sure it gets across everything I was thinking about re: water/love/the Force in relation to Rey, but I do like how it turned out, even if it didn't end up being as OT3-shippy as I'd hoped. I wanted there to be kissing at the end, but alas, I seem to be firmly entrenched in gen territory in this fandom, at least at the moment. *hands* I did get to put in a dick joke I've had in my back pocket for a while, reworked slightly for a more appropriate use than originally intended.

It was kind of weird walking a line between hinting but never having anyone come out and say anything in the story about whether or not Rey is a Skywalker, because I obviously want her to be! But there are reasons nobody brings it up in the story! But there are also hints that she is, or I meant there to be anyway. I think it's obvious I think that in everything I write about her, but it's interesting to have Luke play it coy for a variety of reasons that probably only make sense in my head. I dunno.

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I think I'm coming down with a cold? Or possibly it's just allergies and Zyrtec fails at actually being a 24-hour medication (which I already knew, because after four hours around cats, it stops working for me and I start to be unable to breathe) and yet I still feel better than I did earlier this week. It never fails to amaze me what an actual decent night's sleep and some sunlight can accomplish in terms of improving my outlook on life.

While I was having that great night's sleep, I dreamt that the Gilmore Girls reunion was also a Star Wars crossover. I'm not really sure how that worked but somehow Luke Danes was replaced with Ewan McGregor-era Obi-Wan Kenobi. I guess one sarcastic bearded guy is just like another? IDEK. I can't picture Obi-Wan in a backwards baseball cap, though.

Speaking of Star Wars crossovers and meta, I love this post about Anakin Skywalker: When Hufflepuffs Go Bad. Search your feelings! You know it to be true!

And books:

What I've just finished

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Omnibus 3 by John Jackson Miller, which I liked less than the first two volumes, but it was still fun.

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1) by Rick Riordan, which happens post Heroes of Olympus and probably concurrent with the Magnus Chase stuff? Which is all leading into an epic apocalypse-averting crossover between all his series, I think?

Anyway, I didn't like Apollo as a narrator as much as I've liked the other kids, and there wasn't nearly enough Percy Jackson in this one, given that he appeared early on to get my hopes up. For all that these books kind of blur together, it's amazing to me how much I like Percy and how much more vivid a character he is than some of the other kids. But it does check in on a bunch of other characters and ( spoilers )

I also read this month's Darth Vader and ugh, Palpatine continues to be THE WORST. And I guess he kind of has to be so you can feel okay rooting for Vader to get the better of him. Because otherwise, you're rooting for Vader against people who probably don't deserve it and, well, despite the fact that he is, as Oscar Isaac said, "a sad, weird man" (I think the sadness is a given, but the WEIRDNESS is just not talked about often enough and he is just SO FUCKING WEIRD), he's still a terrifying and fascist murder machine you wouldn't ordinarily root for even if you've developed a deep yet unwanted affection for him. And by you I of course mean me. So whoever he's up against has to be worse than him (or it has to be his kids, where you're rooting for them but hoping he doesn't do anything too irrevocable that he'll feel awful about later and...I know. I'm judging me, too), or the whole premise kind of falls apart.

And this month's Gotham Academy was the last in that series for a while (I'm glad it's going to stick around after "rebirth") and Damian and Maps' friendship makes me so happy.

What I'm reading now
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray. I just started it this morning on the subway, so I don't have much to say though I was a little sad that in a whole long thing about Bail Organa, Breha barely gets a mention (and not by name), and that so far, even in an aside about Leia not acknowledging her aforementioned bio dad, Padme doesn't get a mention at all. Hopefully that last part changes. IJS. I mean, her only mistake was having terrible taste in men. *hands*

What I'm reading next
I don't know! I discovered that my library card expired but I haven't made it back there to reinstate it - you have to go IN PERSON which I find ridiculous! - so I have no holds coming in or anything. I guess we'll see!

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