Three picture books and a Sanderson
Oct. 11th, 2025 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lannamichaels- Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (2023): DNF. Not unenjoyable but also not gripping. His prose here was more engaging than the last Sanderson I tried to read, which actually isn't saying much. Also it was short enough that it didn't physically hurt to try to read it, which is another point in its favor. It had a strange tone, not quite funny, not quite satirical. Despite having nothing in common with Princess Bride The Book, it strangely felt like it was trying to be Princess Bride The Book.
Then after DNFing, I flipped to the end to see that, yes, it was trying to riff on the tone of Princess Bride The Book, so I guess it did it well enough that I could be like "...is this trying to be Princess Bride without understanding what makes Princess Bride funny/satirical?" But hey, the intention came through. - The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket (2007): Excellent, hilarious book about a latke that jumps out of the pan while being fried and deals with the fact that that family are the only Jews in the picturesque village full of people celebrating Christmas. Then the latke is eaten. A++, no notes.
- I Am Anne Frank by Brad Meltzer (2020): internets, I read this book for content for a 4 year old. I don't even believe in doing that, but here I am. The 4 year old is a big fan of this series, and Somehow, both me and his parents, when getting books from this series out of the library for him, and seeing all the books that there are in the catalog, have not gotten him this one. Then one day he went to the library and picked it out himself. And a lot of the time, he treats getting out books as the joy is just getting them out, not reading them, so I was going to just return this one unread on the logic that he wouldn't remember, and let this problem be his parents problem, but okay, fine, let's read this book and see how bad this would be to read this to him.
I went in fully expecting this to be a Saint Anne book and I was 100% correct. But it's worse than that. Now, this book series, it focuses a lot on the famous person as a kid (because of the target audience), then goes into them doing what makes them famous, and stops before death, and ends with a lovely heartwarming moral lesson for the target audience. This is a problem with Anne Frank, who never did anything notable in her life, because she never had the opportunity, because she was Jewish. There is no "and then I grew up and did the thing that made me famous". There is no "and then I did anything". She has no accomplishments. This already doesn't fit in at all with the other books in the series: those books are about triumphing over adversity, about working hard and accomplishing great things. Anne Frank did not do any of that.
So what can Anne Frank do? Well, you see, she dies and thus teaches you a moral lesson. That's how these books end: they have the person do what makes them famous and then it has a moral lesson for the target audience. The moral lesson of a dead Jewish girl is, *checks notes*, help other people and be kind. The last line of the book is "I am Anne Frank and I believe that people are truly good at heart." Okay. Well, I suspect if you go back in time and ask her in the concentration camp, you may get a different answer. But no one wants to hear that. They want to know that a tragic victim forgave them for it even as she died. No hard feelings!
I've made a metric I call "do they expect any X to read this book/attend this training/watch this video about X". Applicable to many things! Does this book about disability expect anyone with this disability to read it? Does this presentation about mental health problems expect anyone in the audience to have any mental health problems? Does this book about a Jew expect any Jews to read it?
This book is a bit meh on that. (I know the author is Jewish. That's irrelevant to the intended audience.)
But, hey, I had no great expectations anyway. - Anne Frank by Clémentine V. Baron, translated by Catherine Nolan (2018): Gotten out by an older kid at the same time, so the reading for content was less severe, although months ago this kid DNFed the I Survived the Nazi Invasion book really early on because it was too sad (which we were glad of; when she picked it up, we were all like, uh, let us know if you want to talk about it, and then she read for a bit and asked if something really happened, we said yes, and she put the book down), and has complained of nightmares from certain things, so, like, there was some checking the content, but I skimmed it more. On the whole, better than the above book. I think it did a much better job of not flinching at the end. I'd rather read this book to the 4 year old.
What I have been reading, September edition
Oct. 7th, 2025 09:50 pmscripsiI haven’t read that much in September, or rather, not finished much. I don’t even want to know how many books I have started…
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia. I’ve enjoyed everything I have read by this author, and I enjoyed this one as well. It has three timelines, but I found those easy to keep apart, and the three protagonists each with their own voice. There is a young Mexican woman, Minerva, who in the 1990 studies at an old New England university. She writes her thesis on a mostly forgotten horror author, Beatrice Tremblay who attended the same university in the 1930s. The second timeline is her diary Minerva gets access to, where Beatrice describes the disappearance of her best friend. And last there is the story Minerva’s great grandmother Alba told her about what happened on the family farm in the 1910s. All the stories are linked, and like all of Moreno Gracia’s books I have read there is something supernatural in action. Here it is witches. Even though I guessed from the start who the antagonists were, i still found this a very interesting read.
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. I’m not a big fan of true crime, and I’m not especially interested in Jack the Ripper. But The Five isn’t about him, but about the five women he killed. Rubenhold is a historian and she has made a thorough research into their life. The only thing she doesn’t describe is their murders, she cuts away at the last sighting, and returns to talk about their families reaction. Because most of them had families who cared deeply for them. And what I found very interesting was that she could find no proof any of them, apart from the last victim, was a prostitute at the time they were killed. Most of them were homeless, and all of them poor and alcoholic. Evidently Rubenhold has received a lot of flack, even outright hate, for daring to claim Jack the Ripper didn’t kill prostitutes. She has also received critique for not describing the actual murders, but personally I liked that. I thought it was a good book, and I found her descriptions of the five women thoughtful and interesting.
Story of A Murder by Hallie Rubenhold. Because I liked The Five, I went on to read her book about the Crippen murder. I knew the basic fact about it, mostly because Agatha Christie was inspired by it in Mrs. McGinty Is Dead. Again I thought Rubehold did a good job describing Belle Elmore, the victim, Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Never, and she has clearly done her research. But I just can’t find this murder interesting, even if it was deeply tragic, so I can't say I enjoyed this book much. But if you are interested in true crime, I think you might like it.
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia. I’ve enjoyed everything I have read by this author, and I enjoyed this one as well. It has three timelines, but I found those easy to keep apart, and the three protagonists each with their own voice. There is a young Mexican woman, Minerva, who in the 1990 studies at an old New England university. She writes her thesis on a mostly forgotten horror author, Beatrice Tremblay who attended the same university in the 1930s. The second timeline is her diary Minerva gets access to, where Beatrice describes the disappearance of her best friend. And last there is the story Minerva’s great grandmother Alba told her about what happened on the family farm in the 1910s. All the stories are linked, and like all of Moreno Gracia’s books I have read there is something supernatural in action. Here it is witches. Even though I guessed from the start who the antagonists were, i still found this a very interesting read.
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. I’m not a big fan of true crime, and I’m not especially interested in Jack the Ripper. But The Five isn’t about him, but about the five women he killed. Rubenhold is a historian and she has made a thorough research into their life. The only thing she doesn’t describe is their murders, she cuts away at the last sighting, and returns to talk about their families reaction. Because most of them had families who cared deeply for them. And what I found very interesting was that she could find no proof any of them, apart from the last victim, was a prostitute at the time they were killed. Most of them were homeless, and all of them poor and alcoholic. Evidently Rubenhold has received a lot of flack, even outright hate, for daring to claim Jack the Ripper didn’t kill prostitutes. She has also received critique for not describing the actual murders, but personally I liked that. I thought it was a good book, and I found her descriptions of the five women thoughtful and interesting.
Story of A Murder by Hallie Rubenhold. Because I liked The Five, I went on to read her book about the Crippen murder. I knew the basic fact about it, mostly because Agatha Christie was inspired by it in Mrs. McGinty Is Dead. Again I thought Rubehold did a good job describing Belle Elmore, the victim, Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Never, and she has clearly done her research. But I just can’t find this murder interesting, even if it was deeply tragic, so I can't say I enjoyed this book much. But if you are interested in true crime, I think you might like it.
(no subject)
Oct. 7th, 2025 06:15 pmtropicsbearThe blood-curdling Permian monsters that ruled the Earth before dinosaurs
This was the Permian, an obscure era of geological history where the planet was ruled by giant, bone-chilling beasts that ran with a characteristic waddle and sometimes snacked on sharks. During this living nightmare, there were occasionally more carnivores around than there were prey for them to eat on land.
Amperslash Exchange Letter
Oct. 7th, 2025 05:42 pm22degreehaloI love love love the concept for this exchange: blurring the lines between relationships and letting things just hang (temporarily or permanently) in this ill-defined middle is one of my very favourite things to do to my ships!! <3
Here’s a list of some takes on this dynamic that I really love to see:
( I'm so excited!!! I've been waiting months since I found out about this exchange <3 )
And here's my general fandom exchange letter for general likes/dislikes! <3
Here’s a list of some takes on this dynamic that I really love to see:
( I'm so excited!!! I've been waiting months since I found out about this exchange <3 )
And here's my general fandom exchange letter for general likes/dislikes! <3
babble and recs
Oct. 6th, 2025 11:08 pmdonutsweeperI haven't had a ton of free time lately but have been trying to get started on my yuletide letter. Other than All Souls (which will be my 7th time requesting) all my requests will be new which is exciting! New fandoms! Except that means coming up with the prompts from scratch which is not easy. Usually I am repeating 2 or 3 fandoms so I can reuse and reword things.
Also, I'm kicking myself because I totally forgot to take pictures of my most recent craft project- I had been working on a rug (back to knotted kind, from a set of old blue sheets) and my parents asked for it but they'd need it before they headed out of state (they snowbird every year now) so I rushed to finish it before we headed to their house for break-the-fast after Yom Kippur and finished with a half hour to spare and documenting it totally slipped my mind. Oh well. They loved it which is the important thing.
I don't know if anyone's followed the SciShow vs the knitting community controversy but...
There were some great videos posted in response to it though, Kristine Vike did a great Scientist and Knitter reacts to SciShow's knitting video and JillianEve started a new channel, Evie Unraveling, to do her own I Remade the SciShow Knitting Video (with accurate SCIENCE) (there are numerous other good reaction vids, these were the two by people I followed already).
Previously, SciShow pinned a not very good correction/we hear you had issues with out content comment to the vid in response to backlash but I noticed a few days ago that SciShow actually pulled their vid and put up an apology youtube community comment which was pretty decent. Long story short (too late) I thought the whole controversy was interesting and that some of you might find it so as well. (As a note, I've still unsubscribed, I'd noticed a few errors/bad takes/odd ways they'd presented things in previous videos but hadn't really known enough about most subjects to question their ability to teach me things but I learned long ago that if I'd been following someone to learn from what they present and they do a topic I know something about and notice issues with what they present then it means it's likely there's been plenty of things I hadn't noticed so I can't rely on them anymore.)
And last but not least, here's 2 weeks of![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
recthething recs! (MDZS/Untamed fic and Batman, Clue, Doctor Who, MDZS, Merlin, and Supernatural tumblr art):
Also, I'm kicking myself because I totally forgot to take pictures of my most recent craft project- I had been working on a rug (back to knotted kind, from a set of old blue sheets) and my parents asked for it but they'd need it before they headed out of state (they snowbird every year now) so I rushed to finish it before we headed to their house for break-the-fast after Yom Kippur and finished with a half hour to spare and documenting it totally slipped my mind. Oh well. They loved it which is the important thing.
I don't know if anyone's followed the SciShow vs the knitting community controversy but...
cut for length
For those unaware about a month ago on SciShow Hank Green did a video called "Physicists Don't Understand Why Knitting Works" that was... well, not great (and the info provided didn't match the clickbaity title at all). There was some true science presented in it, including some recent studies that were quite interesting, but it was presented in a way that, well, kind of implied actual crafters didn't know or even think about much about the hows or whys it's done the way it's done and if that's not enough it did so in a kind of pat-on-the-head dismissiveness of women's work kind of way. It also was just riddled with errors (from mistaking nalbinding for knitting, to not seeming to realize the difference between woven garments and knitted ones, to even misspelling the word 'stitch' numerous times, etc etc)There were some great videos posted in response to it though, Kristine Vike did a great Scientist and Knitter reacts to SciShow's knitting video and JillianEve started a new channel, Evie Unraveling, to do her own I Remade the SciShow Knitting Video (with accurate SCIENCE) (there are numerous other good reaction vids, these were the two by people I followed already).
Previously, SciShow pinned a not very good correction/we hear you had issues with out content comment to the vid in response to backlash but I noticed a few days ago that SciShow actually pulled their vid and put up an apology youtube community comment which was pretty decent. Long story short (too late) I thought the whole controversy was interesting and that some of you might find it so as well. (As a note, I've still unsubscribed, I'd noticed a few errors/bad takes/odd ways they'd presented things in previous videos but hadn't really known enough about most subjects to question their ability to teach me things but I learned long ago that if I'd been following someone to learn from what they present and they do a topic I know something about and notice issues with what they present then it means it's likely there's been plenty of things I hadn't noticed so I can't rely on them anymore.)
And last but not least, here's 2 weeks of
recthething recs! (MDZS/Untamed fic and Batman, Clue, Doctor Who, MDZS, Merlin, and Supernatural tumblr art): The fic:
the cat distribution system by ScarlettStorm (38k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian gets a cat, and then a boyfriend, both of which are a surprise. (great fic with great art from the 2025 MDZS Reverse Big Bang, also 2 podfics have been done of this fic, linked in the endnotes)
the tumblr art:
Batman/DCU
- Nightwing written in Nightwing (very cool effect)
Clue (the movie)
- “Okay, Chief, take 'em away. I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.” (excellent art of the cast)
Doctor Who (Classic)
- Delgado!Master doodle (love this)
MDZS/The Untamed
- Dadji and his pride and joy (Adorable LWJ and a-yuan and bunnies)
Merlin
- Tenderness (perfect title for this terribly tender Merther moment)
Supernatural
- Dean Winchester <333 (excellent rendition)
the cat distribution system by ScarlettStorm (38k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian gets a cat, and then a boyfriend, both of which are a surprise. (great fic with great art from the 2025 MDZS Reverse Big Bang, also 2 podfics have been done of this fic, linked in the endnotes)
the tumblr art:
Batman/DCU
- Nightwing written in Nightwing (very cool effect)
Clue (the movie)
- “Okay, Chief, take 'em away. I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.” (excellent art of the cast)
Doctor Who (Classic)
- Delgado!Master doodle (love this)
MDZS/The Untamed
- Dadji and his pride and joy (Adorable LWJ and a-yuan and bunnies)
Merlin
- Tenderness (perfect title for this terribly tender Merther moment)
Supernatural
- Dean Winchester <333 (excellent rendition)
(no subject)
Oct. 6th, 2025 11:48 amharpers_childMy mother has been in Ireland for 3 days (the first two of which were for touristing in Dublin and resting) and has managed to find two distant cousins to talk to about family history.
Mom, Dad, and Godmother are on a trip together. They went with a fancy tour company and a driver. Mom and Godmother wanted to go to certain places for genealogy reasons. They met up with the driver today to go to the first town, church, and cemetery. Mom and driver got to talking. Driver knew someone who knew an old-timer (92) they went to talk with who knew where the chapel (ruins) that branch of the family was baptized at was located. I've got pictures of the chapel in the family group chat.
Driver's friend meets them at the cemetery and got family names and got Mom and co in touch with Cousin 1. They meet up and talk. Cousin 1 gives mom number for Cousin 2 since she's the family historian. They're meeting up tomorrow.
The house the family lived in during the early 1800s is now a charity shop. I've got pictures of the building.
Further updates as they come in.
Mom, Dad, and Godmother are on a trip together. They went with a fancy tour company and a driver. Mom and Godmother wanted to go to certain places for genealogy reasons. They met up with the driver today to go to the first town, church, and cemetery. Mom and driver got to talking. Driver knew someone who knew an old-timer (92) they went to talk with who knew where the chapel (ruins) that branch of the family was baptized at was located. I've got pictures of the chapel in the family group chat.
Driver's friend meets them at the cemetery and got family names and got Mom and co in touch with Cousin 1. They meet up and talk. Cousin 1 gives mom number for Cousin 2 since she's the family historian. They're meeting up tomorrow.
The house the family lived in during the early 1800s is now a charity shop. I've got pictures of the building.
Further updates as they come in.
(no subject)
Oct. 5th, 2025 07:41 pmtropicsbearSince it's already Christmas season in the Philippines (and has been since 1 September), please enjoy this amazing bagpipe mashup cover:
(no subject)
Oct. 3rd, 2025 01:43 pmharpers_child1. Got dental work done yesterday. Work itself went well. I love my dentist. But I woke up with a clicky jaw yesterday and no amount of careful handling was going to make dental work a pleasant experience. Alternated ice and heat, still got up today with a sore and swollen face.
2. I forgot to post when Kevin got sentenced. It was right before I got home from my trip and between travel and covid it slipped my mind. For the federal charges it's 14.5 years, credit for the year served, and 15 years probation after. State charges may or may not occur later. Internet crimes are weird.
3. My parents and godmother are in Ireland for the next few weeks. I warned my parents about how citizens are getting their phones searched coming back and they were pretty dismissive about my concerns. They're fairly apolitical online so it should be fine. The only real problem would be text threads and there is plenty in the history being critical of other politicians. (I was raised to believe that politicians are all con men who are out to line their own pockets while doing the bare minimum for their constituents to remain in office. I have seen little in adulthood to change this belief. The nature of the con has changed. It used to be they pretended to be willing to compromise.)
4. I have so little energy right now. I don't think any Halloween projects are happening. I really should reach out to various doctors about the increased long covid issues after my second bout of covid, but that takes energy.
2. I forgot to post when Kevin got sentenced. It was right before I got home from my trip and between travel and covid it slipped my mind. For the federal charges it's 14.5 years, credit for the year served, and 15 years probation after. State charges may or may not occur later. Internet crimes are weird.
3. My parents and godmother are in Ireland for the next few weeks. I warned my parents about how citizens are getting their phones searched coming back and they were pretty dismissive about my concerns. They're fairly apolitical online so it should be fine. The only real problem would be text threads and there is plenty in the history being critical of other politicians. (I was raised to believe that politicians are all con men who are out to line their own pockets while doing the bare minimum for their constituents to remain in office. I have seen little in adulthood to change this belief. The nature of the con has changed. It used to be they pretended to be willing to compromise.)
4. I have so little energy right now. I don't think any Halloween projects are happening. I really should reach out to various doctors about the increased long covid issues after my second bout of covid, but that takes energy.
Media consumption: Robots & Artificial Intelligence Short Stories 📚
Oct. 3rd, 2025 11:13 pmtropicsbearRobots & Artificial Intelligence Short Stories
(I bought this 100% because of the pretty hardcover with the shiny foil. The picture doesn't do it justice.)
It took almost three years for me to finish this 💀 In my defense, I kept putting down and ignoring this for long stretches of time whenever I was in the middle of a story that I didn't vibe with. I'm not gonna rate the collection as a whole because I think it makes more sense to rate per story ... but I'm also too lazy to rate per story.
I'll settle for listing my favorites in no particular order:
- "Demeter's Regard" by Deborah L. Davitt
- "Owen" by Bruce Golden
- "The Dancing Partner" by Jerome K. Jerome
- "The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant" by Rachael K. Jones
- "Dispo and the Crow" by Rich Larson
- "I, Coffeepot" by David Sklar
Problem that I didn't anticipate with this book: How absolutely unengaging I would find some of the older stories. Those were usually the ones I needed to drag myself through because the completionist in me wasn't bored enough to skip anything. I don't know if it's because the style of prose just doesn't jive with what I'm used to or if it's something else. The worst ones (in terms of keeping my attention) were "The Steam Man of the Prairies" by Edward S. Ellis, and "Frank Reade Jr. & His New Steam Man" and "Frank Reade Jr. & His New Steam Horse" by Luis Philip Senarens.
(It also didn't help that they were very racist towards the characters of color. I thought it was weird that they had a foreword and a publisher's note for the collection but neither one included any warnings about it, like the Warner Bros. one for their old cartoons.)
I have a couple more collection type books in my to-read pile to go through, but I think after those I'm done with collections.