November Book Log
Nov. 30th, 2025 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astrogirlSomehow it's this late in the year already, so here's the list for November:
( 73. 10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors by Ed Deboo )
( 74. False Value by Ben Aaronovitch )
( 75. Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld )
( 76. Wastelands: The New Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams )
( 77. Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach )
( 78. Doctor Who and the War Games by Malcolm Hulke )
( 79. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan )
( 80. Out There: The Science Behind Sci-Fi Film and TV by Ariel Waldman )
( 73. 10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors by Ed Deboo )
( 74. False Value by Ben Aaronovitch )
( 75. Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld )
( 76. Wastelands: The New Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams )
( 77. Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach )
( 78. Doctor Who and the War Games by Malcolm Hulke )
( 79. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan )
( 80. Out There: The Science Behind Sci-Fi Film and TV by Ariel Waldman )
November 2025 in Review
Nov. 30th, 2025 10:29 amjames_davis_nicoll
21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 10 by men (48%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).
Book by book, closer to aleph null.
November 2025 in Review
The Incredible Umbrella (Incredible Umbrella, volume 1) by Marvin Kaye
Nov. 30th, 2025 09:17 amjames_davis_nicoll
An academic's dismal prospects are transformed by a magical umbrella.
The Incredible Umbrella (Incredible Umbrella, volume 1) by Marvin Kaye
Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!
Nov. 30th, 2025 02:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_newsHello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.
The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
And me? Well, I'm just the narrator
Nov. 29th, 2025 02:17 pmsovayIf you knew the algorithm and fed it back say ten thousand times, each time there'd be a dot somewhere on the screen. You'd never know where to expect the next dot. But gradually you'd start to see this shape, because every dot will be inside the shape of this leaf. It wouldn't be a leaf, it would be a mathematical object. But yes. The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is. It's how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm. It makes me so happy. To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing. People were talking about the end of physics. Relativity and quantum looked as if they were going to clean out the whole problem between them. A theory of everything. But they only explained the very big and the very small. The universe, the elementary particles. The ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives, the things people write poetry about – clouds – daffodils – waterfalls – and what happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes in – these things are full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks. We're better at predicting events at the edge of the galaxy or inside the nucleus of an atom than whether it'll rain on auntie's garden party three Sundays from now. Because the problem turns out to be different. We can't even predict the next drip from a dripping tap when it gets irregular. Each drip sets up the conditions for the next, the smallest variation blows prediction apart, and the weather is unpredictable the same way, will always be unpredictable. When you push the numbers through the computer you can see it on the screen. The future is disorder. A door like this has cracked open five or six times since we got up on our hind legs. It's the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.
—Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (1993)
—Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (1993)
Books Received, November 22 — November 28
Nov. 29th, 2025 08:58 amjames_davis_nicoll
Eight books new to me. Five fantasy, one horror, two science fiction, of which two are series and six may not be.
Books Received, November 22 — November 28
Poll #33890 Books Received, November 22 — November 28
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (June 2026)
19 (32.8%)
The Franchise by Thomas Elrod (May 2026)
9 (15.5%)
Carry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden (July 2026)
3 (5.2%)
Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer (June 2026)
28 (48.3%)
Inkpot Gods by Seanan McGuire (June 2026)
19 (32.8%)
Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo (June 2026)
7 (12.1%)
For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce (February 2026)
3 (5.2%)
The War Beyond by Andrea Stewart (November 2025)
9 (15.5%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (1.7%)
Cats!
41 (70.7%)
James and the Commute Home
Nov. 28th, 2025 09:19 amjames_davis_nicollWell, that was more close brushes with performing CPR than I consider ideal for a commute...
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
The Gods Below (Hollow Covenant, volume 1) by Andrea Stewart
Nov. 28th, 2025 08:58 amjames_davis_nicoll
Two sisters, separated during calamity, join opposing sides of a divine war.
The Gods Below (Hollow Covenant, volume 1) by Andrea Stewart
I'd marry her this minute if she only would agree
Nov. 27th, 2025 10:48 pmsovayI had a small but very successful Thanksgiving with my parents, with both of my husbands, and with nineweaving. I have been supplied with all the ingredients for a turkey terrific and a whole lot of apple crumble that doesn't need to be reconstructed into anything except me. My mother taped the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I leaned back into rushthatspeaks while we talked books and movies and theatrical stories. The photo was taken by spatch for selkie in condolence for the stressors of her holiday for which she was not the responsible party. The Sallust is from 1886, but I work with what I've got.
nineweaving. I have been supplied with all the ingredients for a turkey terrific and a whole lot of apple crumble that doesn't need to be reconstructed into anything except me. My mother taped the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I leaned back into rushthatspeaks while we talked books and movies and theatrical stories. The photo was taken by spatch for selkie in condolence for the stressors of her holiday for which she was not the responsible party. The Sallust is from 1886, but I work with what I've got.
This is what I get for being civilized
Nov. 27th, 2025 09:44 amsovayDespite my best intentions of routine insomnia, I was awake too late because I fell into a 1990 BBC Radio 3 production of Michael Frayn's Benefactors (1984) which I had never read and barely heard of and if I had a nickel for every play by Michael Frayn which dips in and out of the fourth wall of the timestream as its characters post-mortem how it all went wrong in those complicated spaces between them so many years ago, I still wouldn't be able to afford a cup of coffee at these prices even if I could drink it, but since I've seen two productions of Copenhagen (1998) and heard a third, I still think it's funny. Benefactors is harder-edged as its Brutalist architecture, more pitilessly patterned, the structure of a double-couple farce where the doors all slam with a bleak wince: still a memory play of ideas without answers, still the lacuna of human actions radiating at its heart. "But then you look up on a clear night and you'll see there's only a dusting of light in all creation. It's a dark universe." If I have to be thankful for something at this miserable moment of history, the accessibility of art is a strong contender. Also cats.
Nicked by M. T. Anderson
Nov. 27th, 2025 09:40 amjames_davis_nicoll
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
Nicked by M. T. Anderson
Pringle's Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, An English-Language Selection, 1949–1984
Nov. 26th, 2025 09:11 pmjames_davis_nicollPringle's book was referenced on Bluesky and since I couldn't read the images, I looked it up on Wikipedia.
The List
( Read more... )
The List
( Read more... )
I hate that I hate soup.
Nov. 26th, 2025 03:10 pmajI made a giant pot of cream of mushroom soup. I should have brought the leftovers in as there were several people who indicated interest. It did turn out well! I just... panic remembered that I kind of hate soup? Meh. Maybe I'll buy some nice bread on the way home and try it after a night in the fridge? That helps sometimes.
Anywho. The soup did turn out well! I made the mashed potatoes and prepped the other parts of the green bean casserole. Pie is tonight. I forgot to put the pie shells in the fridge this morning (Wink was yelling about breakfast) so I'll probably prep the stuff tonight and bake it tomorrow morning. I'm also bringing the ingredients for the scalloped corn to bake at mom's tomorrow. I think dinner's ~3pm, so I'll have time. Especially as it apparently is gonna snow? IDK.
I am just excited to hang out, get my left overs and snuggle in with the girls this weekend. My new betting is fab and I am ready to be a lump.
Anywho. The soup did turn out well! I made the mashed potatoes and prepped the other parts of the green bean casserole. Pie is tonight. I forgot to put the pie shells in the fridge this morning (Wink was yelling about breakfast) so I'll probably prep the stuff tonight and bake it tomorrow morning. I'm also bringing the ingredients for the scalloped corn to bake at mom's tomorrow. I think dinner's ~3pm, so I'll have time. Especially as it apparently is gonna snow? IDK.
I am just excited to hang out, get my left overs and snuggle in with the girls this weekend. My new betting is fab and I am ready to be a lump.
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
Nov. 26th, 2025 02:08 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
Eighteen setting sourcebooks for Shadowrun 5th Edition.
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Universe Mega