storbarnsförälder

Ny's Tumblr emerged from hibernation again and it's a very mixed set of feelings.

In print, generally as ebooks:

The Green Man's Foe by Juliet McKenna

I'm reading it very very slowly and in little bits, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I have a bunch of these lined up for if I ever, you know, get my mojo back.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

This is the Georgette Heyer Readalong gang's current Readalong book - we discuss it in a chat on Sunday evenings. I can safely say I would not be reading it otherwise; a slow, analytical read doesn't show it in its best light, and I'm too tired these days to read a book in a sitting overnight when I ought to be asleep but am actually eating cereal out of the bag and desperately trying to find out what happens to Hero McHeroface.

Unveiled by Courtney Milan

I finished this and fully intend to write about it sometime. But I liked it, anyway.

Audiobooks:

I started Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir but it was too dark for me in early January, so then I switched to re-listening to seven Murderbot books in a row, which was lovely, and A Civil Contract by Heyer which I find very reliable for going to sleep. I started re-listening to two Emma Orchards but got distracted and switched to Temeraire because the publisher had re-issued the 4th one with the missing audio restored. I first read a Temeraire book in June 2008 and I've been rereading every so often since, and they are just reliably great. I'm interspersing those with Kowal's "Lady Astronaut" books (which I CANNOT fall asleep to because they are too exciting and so is the narration / performance).

Also, I've listened to 3 chapters of The Scarlet Pimpernel from the Gutenberg Project and I was very impressed. I must see what else they have.

Well, it's a while since I learned some of the extent of them (first clues were here) and this morning the unfixable one made itself known in a now-do-surprise-laundry way. I had a bit of a cry about it. I note that when I first learned what had happened I thought it was my own fault for not agreeing to a c-section, because it took a LOT of reading to discover that he hadn't sewn me up properly.

"Legends And Lattes" by Travis Baldree

I really enjoyed this - it was recommended to me by Eldest Offspring and it reminded me of Joanne Harris' "Chocolat" a bit; found community building, bit of magic, lots of lovely descriptions of food. It was an actual paper book, so my eyes and wrists got tired, but it was good and amazingly I was able to read something entirely new by a new-to-me author.

-Doors and windows all closed
-Blinds and curtains all drawn when sunlight falls on the glass
-Mylar foil on the windows
-External shade on the windows and walls where available (we moved a potted tree)
-Margarine tub of water frozen to make a huge ice cube for the flask-with-tap of water, takes longer to melt than same volume of smaller ice cubes so keeps water cool all day
-Cooling scarves
-Drinking water from bottles means we drink more
-Linen clothes
-Watering plants with Baumbad bags and only at night
-Portable aircon units *simpsons meme*

I am not keeping up to date. It's partially that I'm often tired and partially that I'm still not writing about the thing that happened around Christmas that made things... more difficult... though ultimately it will turn out to have been better this way. But it's INCREDIBLY HOT and so we're running fans and using the pop-up pool in the garden and eating TONS of ice cream so it's also quite luxuriously holidayesque, while underneath is the horror of climate change. Yay?

In the last couple of weeks I may be regaining my ability to read again, which is intermittent, and I'm hoping to do monthly book posts again, I liked that the two or three times I did them.

Heartea -- blackcurrant rosemary honey and hibiscus -- this smelt amazing and tasted delicious. My faith is renewed.