Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Forbidden
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Later it turns out the duck was getting with a porcupine and had a litter of Echidnas.
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Speak Daggers to Her (Bast, volume 1) by Rosemary Edghill
Apr. 16th, 2026 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
Did Miriam Seabrook die of natural causes or was she murdered by her creepy coven? Witch Bast will find out.
Speak Daggers to Her (Bast, volume 1) by Rosemary Edghill
Reading/Listening
Apr. 16th, 2026 12:17 pmantisoppistOn Radio 4 Extra the other week, I heard a repeat of an edition of Good Reads in which Harriet Gilbert made Patrick Grant read Penelope Lively. Patrick Grant said his mother's book group read a lot of Penelope Lively but he hadn't ever read any and now he would go and read lots more* (Listen to your mother!). Then I saw a Penelope Lively book in a charity shop and thought I should read it. It turned out that the book in the programme was Heatwave (which I haven't read) and the one I got was Consequences. Consequences is always an ominous title but fortunately this one does not live up to the trauma of E M Delafield. The blurb and the cover make it sound terrible "privileged misfit Lorna meets the love of her life", "a penniless and bohemian artist" but "the coming war takes Matt - and with him Lorna's dreams - away" but it is lovely - and goes on through 2 more generations and then it comes full circle and made me cry.
Here I admit that much of its appeal for me came from it being set near where I live. This is understandable because Penelope Lively spent a lot of her childhood with her grandparents at Golonscott House in West Somerset. Here is a piece about Penelope Lively's aunt the artist Rachel Reckitt with a picture of the house at the end. I now need to go on a Rachel Reckitt local tour.* But the book is also about odd families of choice and people making their own decisions and being a bit out of step with their times. Though it is a pity characters have to keep suddenly dying. But it is also a book that loves West Somerset.
And here is Ruth, Lorna's granddaughter:
Shortly after this she has to reverse for a tractor and scrapes the side of her car on a raised rock. It is the way of things. Then she gets very lost in the lanes and "horror of horrors" ends up back on the A39 again before being able to turn round. That is also the way of things. My favourite quote though in the narrow, high-hedged lanes is "here and there a glimpse through a gate of blue and green distances like the jewelled vistas in medieval painting". Something so familiar here, put into words that make you see it differently.
Otherwise, the album of the current Broadway production of Chess is out. Obviously I am not going to New York to see Chess but I would really like to know what the production did with it this time. Youngest and I have been listening to the album and going "why did they put that song there" and "why is Florence singing Someone Else's Story and why is it at the end?" and Eldest keeps saying "I don't know, take it up with Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because Danny Strong wrote the book. He has in fact done a YouTube video about how he fixed the problems with Chess but it doesn't actually tell me what he did other than that it was very difficult to create scenes that used the existing narrative in the song lyrics to join them all up presumably in a different way? Nor does he mention the Swedish production, which did solve the problems with Chess and I would like to know if he knew about it and what he decided to do differently. This production includes "He is a Man, He is a Child" (sung by Svetlana which is presumably why Florence gets Someone Else's Story) and that originated in the first Swedish production so you would have thought so? The new overture is very good though. I liked that. I assume it hasn't had one before because often people put The Story of Chess at the start instead because it doesn't fit anywhere else unless you are trying to give the audience something to listen to while people play chess.
*He also said reading it had given him an insight into what it must be like to worry about things and be introspective, which is something people close to him have struggled with. I feel probably Patrick Grant should listen to the people he knows rather than what, not believe them until someone puts it in a book? I like Patrick Grant on Sewing Bee but the inside of his head must be so different from practically everyone I know.
**I would also have liked to have seen the exhibition at the museum had I known it was onand had my daughter who works for the heritage trust happened to mention it.
Here I admit that much of its appeal for me came from it being set near where I live. This is understandable because Penelope Lively spent a lot of her childhood with her grandparents at Golonscott House in West Somerset. Here is a piece about Penelope Lively's aunt the artist Rachel Reckitt with a picture of the house at the end. I now need to go on a Rachel Reckitt local tour.* But the book is also about odd families of choice and people making their own decisions and being a bit out of step with their times. Though it is a pity characters have to keep suddenly dying. But it is also a book that loves West Somerset.
The cottage stood beside a lane. At the front, it looked out over the high hedge bank of its garden, across the lane and the sloping field beyond to a wooded valley that reached up into the Brendon Hills. Behind, fields and copses rolled away down to the Bristol Channel coastline; there was a long, thin slice of pewter sea and, on a clear day, the distant shore of Wales. Square and squat, cob and thatch, dug solid into the red Somerset earth, the small building had seen out generations of farm labourers. People had been born here, died here, had heard rumours of wars, had achieved the vote, had sweated over the same patch of landscape and stared at the same sky. Now, the place stood empty, bar the mice and the black beetles and the spiders. Empty and two pounds a month.
And here is Ruth, Lorna's granddaughter:
"The M4. The M5. Comfort stops at teeming motorway service stations through which flowed the August crowds. The nation was on the move and the west country was the place to which it moved.
[...]
And now the directions sent her off sharply into the hinterland. You burrowed into this landscape, she saw. The motorways rushed through it, and the A this and the B that, but as soon as you abandoned those dictatorial highways you had slipped off into another sphere. You were in the lanes, you were in narrow tunnels between high hedge banks, routes that also knew quite well what they were about and where they were going but that was their own immemorial business, and you were now in their domain. You went where they went, and that was that."
Shortly after this she has to reverse for a tractor and scrapes the side of her car on a raised rock. It is the way of things. Then she gets very lost in the lanes and "horror of horrors" ends up back on the A39 again before being able to turn round. That is also the way of things. My favourite quote though in the narrow, high-hedged lanes is "here and there a glimpse through a gate of blue and green distances like the jewelled vistas in medieval painting". Something so familiar here, put into words that make you see it differently.
Otherwise, the album of the current Broadway production of Chess is out. Obviously I am not going to New York to see Chess but I would really like to know what the production did with it this time. Youngest and I have been listening to the album and going "why did they put that song there" and "why is Florence singing Someone Else's Story and why is it at the end?" and Eldest keeps saying "I don't know, take it up with Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because Danny Strong wrote the book. He has in fact done a YouTube video about how he fixed the problems with Chess but it doesn't actually tell me what he did other than that it was very difficult to create scenes that used the existing narrative in the song lyrics to join them all up presumably in a different way? Nor does he mention the Swedish production, which did solve the problems with Chess and I would like to know if he knew about it and what he decided to do differently. This production includes "He is a Man, He is a Child" (sung by Svetlana which is presumably why Florence gets Someone Else's Story) and that originated in the first Swedish production so you would have thought so? The new overture is very good though. I liked that. I assume it hasn't had one before because often people put The Story of Chess at the start instead because it doesn't fit anywhere else unless you are trying to give the audience something to listen to while people play chess.
*He also said reading it had given him an insight into what it must be like to worry about things and be introspective, which is something people close to him have struggled with. I feel probably Patrick Grant should listen to the people he knows rather than what, not believe them until someone puts it in a book? I like Patrick Grant on Sewing Bee but the inside of his head must be so different from practically everyone I know.
**I would also have liked to have seen the exhibition at the museum had I known it was on
[ Books ] 'Project Hail Mary' - Andy Weir
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:03 amflaviomatani
Project Hail Mary by Andy WeirMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Loved this. Of course in describing an interstellar travel there are a few impossibilities and you have to choose which to ignore but the story here felt 'real'. Loved the possibility of friendship between beings that have so little in common -even sensorial bandwidth. We could all learn a couple of lessons from Rocky. A perhaps implausible plot with a wild take on Panspermia but it all works and you 'live' in that world for the duration of the book. Loved this book.
View all my reviews
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Apr. 16th, 2026 05:32 amapod_feed
Nope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of
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Wednesday Reading Meme for April 15, 2026
Apr. 15th, 2026 10:04 pmkitewithfishWhat I’ve Read
The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy L. Sayers – A great look at Sayers’s wartime thoughts in 1935. It’s a loose collection of “letters” between Wimsey relatives that give the impression being Sayers’s soapbox. It’s honestly fairly touching but I’m biased.
Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson – Fascinating alternate history novel, told in several timelines. The older timeline is an alternate history of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, where it actually went off as planned with Harriet Tubman’s help. The younger timeline is about the survivors of a dead astronaut coping with the new Mars mission. It’s great and weird and hopeful and antiracist in a wrathful and constructive way.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata – Mixed bag. The first section is from the perspective of an abused and neglected child with a single friend – she’s so alienated from humanity she grows to actually believe she’s an alien. It depicts the abuse and violence with the character disassociating thru it all in a very convincing and harrowing way. She thinks of herself and society as The Factory – they make babies and enforce that role on everyone around them – she’ll grow up into the role eventually. The second half of the book didn’t work for me so well – we meet up with the same character in a much calmer time of her life, but the forces of The Factory are more distant until they are radically not. The second half of the book feels ... like a parody of alienation? She’s not feeling her own emotions anymore and so the more shocking actions of the later book didn’t land as closely. It’s an interesting attempt, but I think that Tender is the Flesh did the “cannibalism as dehumanization” thread more justice.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley – Re-Read. A strange and inconsistent creature – McKinley’s one urban fantasy experiment did not actually land the logistics and plot of an urban fantasy, but the vibes are dreamy and weird and I love that.
What I’m Reading
Fabric of Civilization – no movement
Chalice by Robin McKinley – Sunshine made me crave more.
What I’ll Read Next
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (eventually)
Animorphs – I enjoyed these books and recently tumblr has tempted me into finishing the series.
The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy L. Sayers – A great look at Sayers’s wartime thoughts in 1935. It’s a loose collection of “letters” between Wimsey relatives that give the impression being Sayers’s soapbox. It’s honestly fairly touching but I’m biased.
Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson – Fascinating alternate history novel, told in several timelines. The older timeline is an alternate history of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, where it actually went off as planned with Harriet Tubman’s help. The younger timeline is about the survivors of a dead astronaut coping with the new Mars mission. It’s great and weird and hopeful and antiracist in a wrathful and constructive way.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata – Mixed bag. The first section is from the perspective of an abused and neglected child with a single friend – she’s so alienated from humanity she grows to actually believe she’s an alien. It depicts the abuse and violence with the character disassociating thru it all in a very convincing and harrowing way. She thinks of herself and society as The Factory – they make babies and enforce that role on everyone around them – she’ll grow up into the role eventually. The second half of the book didn’t work for me so well – we meet up with the same character in a much calmer time of her life, but the forces of The Factory are more distant until they are radically not. The second half of the book feels ... like a parody of alienation? She’s not feeling her own emotions anymore and so the more shocking actions of the later book didn’t land as closely. It’s an interesting attempt, but I think that Tender is the Flesh did the “cannibalism as dehumanization” thread more justice.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley – Re-Read. A strange and inconsistent creature – McKinley’s one urban fantasy experiment did not actually land the logistics and plot of an urban fantasy, but the vibes are dreamy and weird and I love that.
What I’m Reading
Fabric of Civilization – no movement
Chalice by Robin McKinley – Sunshine made me crave more.
What I’ll Read Next
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (eventually)
Animorphs – I enjoyed these books and recently tumblr has tempted me into finishing the series.
Solar Feelings
Apr. 16th, 2026 12:53 amdiffrentcoloursI'm in the process of sorting out solar panels and domestic battery for my house. This is a very popular thing in the UK currently due to Trump fucking around in Iran, which means that gas, petrol and other prices have skyrocketed.
The logistics are reasonably simple - I've approached three major providers (Wickes, EDF Energy, Octopus Energy) for quotes, plus a local installer who hasn't gotten back to me. I have quotes ranging between £8-12k, all for slightly different setups, with different capacities and brands of panel / inverter / battery (I'm obviously not touching Tesla). I need to figure out what I want and put the order in. I also have two other local installers I've been recommended, who I may approach for further quotes.
There have been rumours about the Government issuing interest-free loans for this work, which would be lovely, but if it's going to go ahead it won't be until after the local elections in a month due to purdah. And the install will require a G99 certificate, which can take up to 3 months to be issued due to the sudden high demand which isn't going to slow down. Between those, we'll miss a lot of the summer, so I'm tempted to just go ahead. And I'm immensely fortunate that between the household, we can afford that.
Reunited
Apr. 15th, 2026 11:03 pmeiffel_71Wembley yesterday for the Lionesses’ match with Spain. Made sure to pick up an Inside Soap at Waterloo, with its feature with Jodie Prenger talking about her Corrie alter ego, the love of my life Glenda Shuttleworth. Her saying she and the others love making the scenes with the ladies’ friendship circle came as no surprise, they’re such a joy to watch.
Arrived on Olympic Way just before two, called at the Greek food van for a late lunch. Was mooching around waiting for the Premier Inn to open when Jules and Crystal messaged to say they’d be heading to Blue Check for a quick snifter before their dinner plans. So I headed over there.
The lovely Deb from Free Lionesses was there, with a hug, a kiss and a wristband for a discount at the bar for me. Ash was there wanting to chat about QPR and Wales as normal. A quick hello with Rachel, Leanne and Lindsey. Maisie, a fellow Ipswich fan, arrived so I led her toasting the Tractor Boys’ win over the arch enemy Norwich at the weekend.
Jules and Crystal arrived and we found a table. It being the first time we’d met since last summer, we had a lot to catch up on. We talked our lives in and out of work and mutual friends, and Jules shared anecdotes on her and people she knew. They went off to the Italian restaurant they’d agreed to meet Jill, Steph and Kathy in and I wandered over to the Premier Inn to check in.
Amanda commented on my Facebook to say she’d be in Blue Check at 5 so I headed back there. Met her for a chat in the beer garden with Gary, whom we told about our upcoming Reykjavik trip. Got a message from Crystal to say they were all in a bar called Sixty Six. I walked over there and it was a lovely, quiet little place.
Jill, Steph and Kathy were all there with Jules and Crystal. Steph sprung up to meet me at the bar and bought me a cider and a packet of nuts. I joined the gang at their table. Steph told me about the travails of Leicester City’s men’s and women’s teams and she, Jules and I talked about sporting crushes. Talk turned to the Lionesses, and Jill and Steph dropped a most welcome surprise - they’re coming to Reykjavik.
We went on to the stadium, where our seats were separated so we agreed to meet in Boxpark after the game, since Rachel was going there, and said farewells with hugs. I was in a section in the middle tier with padded seats, with a great central view overlooking the pitch.
England got off to a dream start when Alessia Russo, on the ground, provided a wicked ball for Lauren Hemp to just bundle over the line, and the goal line technology showed the whole of the ball had gone over before it was cleared. Goal.
Both sides were well matched from there on. Esme Morgan and Lotte Wubben-Moy were fantastic in central defence. Hannah Hampton came to the rescue more than once with some fine saves, topped off with an incredible one in time added on to preserve the win for England.
I walked over to Boxpark where Rachel and Leanne were. Got a quick drink with them. Jules and the posse arrived, and we got a round of drinks in and found a quiet spot. When the men’s results came in Steph and I weren’t best pleased that Ipswich had lost 2-0 at Portsmouth, denting the Tractor Boys’ promotion challenge and nudging Steph and Jill’s favourites Leicester closer to relegation to League One. So we turned our attention to the Lionesses’ triumph, with acclaim for Hemp, Hampton, Morgan and Wubben-Moy. Steph and I talked prospects for getting legless in Reykjavik. While Crystal was off talking to Rachel and a couple of other friends Jules talked to us about how everyone who meets Crystal loves her. No surprise as she is a lovely, warm and friendly lady. I confessed that I’ve loved her since France.
Just after 11 the Boxpark staff told us it was time to go. We followed Rachel down to The Parish Bar, where we’d gone last time, and settled down at a corner table for another round. Keira Walsh’s mum was also in there; Crystal pointed her out to me.
At chucking-out time we all said fond farewells outside the pub. Jill, Steph and I walked on together as their hotel was on the way to mine. Heading up the last stretch to the Premier Inn I reflected how the women’s football world really is my home. This month’s being an expensive one and my card’s taking a bit of a battering, but : time with friends? Priceless.
Arrived on Olympic Way just before two, called at the Greek food van for a late lunch. Was mooching around waiting for the Premier Inn to open when Jules and Crystal messaged to say they’d be heading to Blue Check for a quick snifter before their dinner plans. So I headed over there.
The lovely Deb from Free Lionesses was there, with a hug, a kiss and a wristband for a discount at the bar for me. Ash was there wanting to chat about QPR and Wales as normal. A quick hello with Rachel, Leanne and Lindsey. Maisie, a fellow Ipswich fan, arrived so I led her toasting the Tractor Boys’ win over the arch enemy Norwich at the weekend.
Jules and Crystal arrived and we found a table. It being the first time we’d met since last summer, we had a lot to catch up on. We talked our lives in and out of work and mutual friends, and Jules shared anecdotes on her and people she knew. They went off to the Italian restaurant they’d agreed to meet Jill, Steph and Kathy in and I wandered over to the Premier Inn to check in.
Amanda commented on my Facebook to say she’d be in Blue Check at 5 so I headed back there. Met her for a chat in the beer garden with Gary, whom we told about our upcoming Reykjavik trip. Got a message from Crystal to say they were all in a bar called Sixty Six. I walked over there and it was a lovely, quiet little place.
Jill, Steph and Kathy were all there with Jules and Crystal. Steph sprung up to meet me at the bar and bought me a cider and a packet of nuts. I joined the gang at their table. Steph told me about the travails of Leicester City’s men’s and women’s teams and she, Jules and I talked about sporting crushes. Talk turned to the Lionesses, and Jill and Steph dropped a most welcome surprise - they’re coming to Reykjavik.
We went on to the stadium, where our seats were separated so we agreed to meet in Boxpark after the game, since Rachel was going there, and said farewells with hugs. I was in a section in the middle tier with padded seats, with a great central view overlooking the pitch.
England got off to a dream start when Alessia Russo, on the ground, provided a wicked ball for Lauren Hemp to just bundle over the line, and the goal line technology showed the whole of the ball had gone over before it was cleared. Goal.
Both sides were well matched from there on. Esme Morgan and Lotte Wubben-Moy were fantastic in central defence. Hannah Hampton came to the rescue more than once with some fine saves, topped off with an incredible one in time added on to preserve the win for England.
I walked over to Boxpark where Rachel and Leanne were. Got a quick drink with them. Jules and the posse arrived, and we got a round of drinks in and found a quiet spot. When the men’s results came in Steph and I weren’t best pleased that Ipswich had lost 2-0 at Portsmouth, denting the Tractor Boys’ promotion challenge and nudging Steph and Jill’s favourites Leicester closer to relegation to League One. So we turned our attention to the Lionesses’ triumph, with acclaim for Hemp, Hampton, Morgan and Wubben-Moy. Steph and I talked prospects for getting legless in Reykjavik. While Crystal was off talking to Rachel and a couple of other friends Jules talked to us about how everyone who meets Crystal loves her. No surprise as she is a lovely, warm and friendly lady. I confessed that I’ve loved her since France.
Just after 11 the Boxpark staff told us it was time to go. We followed Rachel down to The Parish Bar, where we’d gone last time, and settled down at a corner table for another round. Keira Walsh’s mum was also in there; Crystal pointed her out to me.
At chucking-out time we all said fond farewells outside the pub. Jill, Steph and I walked on together as their hotel was on the way to mine. Heading up the last stretch to the Premier Inn I reflected how the women’s football world really is my home. This month’s being an expensive one and my card’s taking a bit of a battering, but : time with friends? Priceless.
Bundle of Holding: Fellowship (from 2020)
Apr. 15th, 2026 02:11 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Core rules and supplements for the Liberi Gothica Games tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of heroism against world-shattering odds, Fellowship.
Bundle of Holding: Fellowship (from 2020)
Dreadnought, by April Daniels
Apr. 15th, 2026 11:00 amrachelmanija
Danny is a 15-year-old closeted trans girl in a world where superheroes are real. She's across town from her home and her transphobic abusive father, hiding in an alley and painting her toenails with polish bought in a shop as far from her home as she can manage, when America's strongest superhero, Dreadnought, gets in a fight with a supervillain, crashes at her feet, and passes on his powers to her, since she's the only one there to receive them, before dying.
His powers automatically reshape her body into her mental ideal. So now she's physically a very pretty, very strong girl with superpowers... who now has to explain this to her abusive transphobic parents, everyone at her school, and the local superheroes, one of whom is a TERF. Not to mention that the supervillain who killed Dreadnought is still out there...
This is basically exactly what it sounds like: a superhero origin story for persecuted trans teenagers. It's very earnest and has absolutely no subtext. My favorite parts were the bits where Danny gets her gender affirmed by new friends and a sympathetic superhero, which are genuinely very sweet, and when Danny finally proclaims herself the new Dreadnought, which is a great stand up and cheer moment . But overall, I'm too old to be its ideal reader.
Content notes: A LOT of transphobia and transphobic slurs.
Jesus
Apr. 15th, 2026 12:00 pmconulyJust went to the store, spent over $90 for half a week's groceries just for me.
This is not sustainable, but it's not going to get better any time soon.
I could eat at work, but let's be clear, I don't much like the housekeeper's cooking, they rarely have in stock what I'd need to make my own food the way I like it (other than eggs), and also I have some weird food issues around... I don't really know. Eating other people's food? But not at a restaurant where it's okay? Maybe it's smelling the food? I honestly do not know, that's what makes these issues weird. (But even if I didn't, she boils the poor vegetables to death.)
This is not sustainable, but it's not going to get better any time soon.
I could eat at work, but let's be clear, I don't much like the housekeeper's cooking, they rarely have in stock what I'd need to make my own food the way I like it (other than eggs), and also I have some weird food issues around... I don't really know. Eating other people's food? But not at a restaurant where it's okay? Maybe it's smelling the food? I honestly do not know, that's what makes these issues weird. (But even if I didn't, she boils the poor vegetables to death.)
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Infinite
Apr. 15th, 2026 11:20 amsmbc_comics_feed
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Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon
Apr. 15th, 2026 10:21 amjames_davis_nicoll
Reaching the Moon is one thing; trying to settle and survive there is another matter...
Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon
O Maidens in Your Savage Season, volume 1 by Mari Okada & Nao Emoto
Apr. 15th, 2026 09:01 amjames_davis_nicoll
Members of a literature club wrestle with adolescence, crushes, and the fact their high school principal would like them to not loudly declaim the spicy passages from great works of literature.
O Maidens in Your Savage Season, volume 1 by Mari Okada & Nao Emoto