storbarnsförälder

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.

I'm partway through book 3 and I just want to note that Hippocampi is a terrible, terrible, terrible pun.

Ooh I'm doing my second listen to these audiobooks (I never catch everything on the first listen, and I can't really read full length things any more) and I missed System Collapse entirely last time. I should have a go at finding the short stories and things that are between and among the books.

[crossposted slightly]
I can't decide whether I want to howl in glee or despair. This is very like reading What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Whatsername, in that I keep going "YES! That thing! That there! That thing too! That! MY GOD I KNEW IT MUST BE LIKE THAT! Those statistics don't surprise me in the least - wow, that's worse than I thought - NO WONDER I WAS AFRAID OF THAT -" and on and on and on.

I am very grateful to radegund for recommending it to me and will reread it more slowly later on. Meanwhile, I recommedn it.

I've ordered two books from Amazon which I've never read before, on radegund's recommendation. I'm really excited.

Usually I'm only allowed to own books I've already read.

₁₀₄In spite of PMS I didn't actually injure anyone. This is a major achievement. I spent yesterday sizzling with rage and today incredibly, mindbogglingly tired. Also, I had to de-weekend the house; it pootles along ok Monday to Friday and by midmorning on Saturday is well on the way to squalor. I'm used to this, but it's hard work. However, ₁₀₄the cleaning lady came and ₁₀₅I've had a lot of junk food.

To improve our cashflow I need to move the account the child tax credit and child benefit gets paid into. So I need to find bits of paper and phone the guvmint.

₁₀₆I've been reading The Audacity of Hope and mainly enjoying it, though I'm a bit surprised to see that Obama's not wholly opposed to the death penalty. He does at least say it's not an effective deterrent. Sadly, it's a book which takes more brain than anything else I'm reading so I'm working through it very slowly, but I'm kind of grateful it takes brain.

₁₀₇The toilet did not get blocked at all today even though Linnea saw fit to play with loo roll again. The damn stuff unwinds so temptingly.

₁₀₈I managed to stay technically awake until Rob got home, though I couldn't stay upright. Then I passed out for over an hour and woke feeling exhausted.

Last night I managed over 60 consecutive minutes of sleep at one point. Between 7:15 and 8:20 am, actually, but it all counts. Rob took Linnea to the Farmer's Market without me, therefore, and I lay in bed nursing Emer and listening to Fi Glover and, er, Elvis McGonagle. It was very restful, honestly.

Then they came home and we had soup for lunch, involving a freak defrost-three-times-what-we-need accident, and then we headed out to the library. Where we stayed until 4 pm when they chucked us out. I have two books on gardening, one on bread machine use, one teen fiction, and one "The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne thingy, whom I like.

On the way home from the library we stopped in to Sweet Masala for a masala dhosa and something Rob ate which he said was "definitely not vegan" but couldn't name beyond that. Then we went to the supermarket and bought portion-cartons of juice, ready-made cake, and a flamethrower.

I've wanted a flamethrower for the weeds on the front path and the patio for years. But they always seem very expensive, and it's insane for us to get expensive garden equipment; we're not interested enough in it to maintain anything.

However, I need to get interested; I must draw up some kind of plan for the allotment and start work on it. Rob will have to do the digging but I can probably do light weeding and so on. I should probably try to borrow a wheelbarrow so he can spread our compost on it. Ew.

The only downside today is that Emer was in the hugabub while Rob was frying onions (dinner is spag bol, any minute now) and she screamed blue murder. She has inherited my eyes, which I get in a direct line from my mother. Oh well; at least her mascara use will be strictly limited.

I must get a photo of my mother, myself and both my daughters.