Leviathan Sings to Me in the Deep by Nibedita Sen
Started: 7/22/20
Finished: 7/23/20
I don’t think I can say I liked this story (about a whaling ship and its crew), but I keep remembering parts of it randomly. It won’t leave me alone.
A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde
Started: 7/22/20
Gave Up: 7/22/20
I tried to read this one, and it had an interesting premise, but the writing style got to me. I stopped reading Fran Wilde’s second book – maybe I finished it, and I don’t care to the third? – and this short story had a similar style.
Blood is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
Started: 7/22/20
Finished: 7/22/20
Weird and disturbing and think-y, like all three pieces I have read by Rivers Solomon now, so at least they have a pattern. 🙂 Available online, link below. Worth reading.
And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas
Started: 7/22/20
Finished: 7/22/20
SO GOOD. It’s fantasy, it’s horror (even though I heard on a horror panel that the author doesn’t think of it as horror, so maybe I should just say it has an element that depending on what you’re afraid of, you could absoLUTEly think it’s scary), it’s historical fiction, and it’s emotional (I cried). SO. GOOD.
As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
Started: 7/22/20
Finished: 7/22/20
I read this one on Tor.com a few months ago and just re-read it this morning. It’s so good. And it made me cry, too, more sad horrified tears, but better ones than the last story.
Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow
Started: 7/21/20
Finished: 7/22/20
I was not enjoying this story, and then it made me cry (sad horrified tears, not happy tears), so it had clearly gotten to me, but I’m still not sure I liked it.
Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen
Started: 7/21/20
Finished: 7/21/20
I like experimental short story formats. This one is fun, but also now I want to read the (fake) source material.
Away With The Wolves by Sarah Gailey
Started: 7/20/20
Finished: 7/21/20
Good story, like a YA werewolf story but without the usual trappings, and I’d really like to find out more.
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/20/20
If you like cats, you will like this story. I do, and I did.
Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
Started: 7/20/20
Finished: 7/20/20
She’s writing in the second person POV again, and it’s SO effective. I love how this played out.
The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
Sarah Pinsker can do no wrong. This story was a roller coaster, speeding downhill, all fun and great, and then BAM we ran into a wall and fell into pieces and then what? And no. No! Oh god no! It’s fantastic and you should read it. Except not you, Mom. Or Margaret.
The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
I don’t think I fully understood this story. I mean, I get the overall plot and everything, I understand what happened and what the characters learned, but the details of the big tech thing and how (or why) things get erased…I spent too much time (for a novelette I finished in less than an hour) puzzling over it. Don’t dazzle me – just tell the story.
Omphalos by Ted Chiang
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
I liked the style of this story more than the content, I think. It’s about an archaeologist who reads about an astronomical discovery that upends her views on everything. The setting is an alternate reality where the science really does uphold the beliefs of the young-earth creationists, so that’s the accepted view of the world and physics and everything. The story is told from her perspective as she relates her days and thoughts to God, via prayers that feel like letters or diary entries.
Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
Fascinating near-future story with tech that allows you to communicate with yourself in a parallel universe, which is really cool, but it’s about free will and how people use that tech to make decisions, to justify their actions. The tech is just the next thing (but it’s a very cool next thing to consider).
The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes
Started: 7/18/20
Finished: 7/19/20
This novella was inspired by the song The Deep (by clipping.), which I haven’t listened to yet. The premise is that the pregnant and going-into-labor slaves who were thrown overboard midocean (true) gave birth to mer-people (probably not true) who built a whole civilization and society around a historian who remembers everything so that the rest of them don’t have to. The story is mostly about the current historian who is having difficulties with this burden, but it also goes back into the memories. It’s very good.
I can get this done
Hugo voting ends in three days, and all I have left to read are six novelettes and six short stories. I’ve read five of the six novels (there’s one I can’t get my hands on), all six of the novellas, five of the six YA nominees, four of the six nominees for best series, a sampling of the best new writer nominees, and I’m not even going to try with the other categories. I had to draw the line somewhere.
But I can read six novelettes and six short stories by Wednesday night, right? I can. I can and I will, but I really need to get off the internet!
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
Started: 7/16/20
Finished: 7/18/20
Supernatural detectives in a supernatural version of 1912 Cairo with sky trams and djinn and women’s suffrage as a backdrop. I would read a whole series about this.
Deception
We’ve mostly been doing really well with naps lately, but these last few days have seen a couple of bumps. Three or four days ago, I was trying to get Jack to go to sleep, but he kept saying “Poop” and “Poo dada”. I thought he was asking me to sing the poopy diaper song (“Poopy diaper! Poopy diaper!” to the tune of the Hallelujah chorus), so I sang it quietly for a little bit and a while later he fell asleep. I did sniff his diaper at the time – didn’t smell anything. When I changed his diaper after that nap, I discovered that he had pooped. Whoops. So the next day when he told me “Poop.” while I was trying to put him to sleep, I believed him. I picked him up out the crib (and he giggled – that should have been a clue), turned the light on, and checked his diaper. No poop. Back into the crib. He insisted he had pooped for the rest of the time it took him to fall asleep, but I wasn’t falling for it (and I couldn’t smell anything). He eventually fell asleep. Post-nap diaper change: no poop.
During our attempts to fall asleep yesterday, when he said “Poop!” several times right after I put him in the crib for his nap, I believed him. I picked him up (no giggle) and changed his diaper (there was poop). Back into the crib, where he immediately yelled “Poop!” at me. Not a chance. But after about 10 minutes of insisting that he pooped, which is a not-at-all-fun constant barrage of “Poop. Poop. Poop! Poop.” in increasingly tearful tones, I figured I should check again. He giggled when I picked him up, I checked his diaper, and there was NO POOP. Back in the crib, back to the “Poop” chorus, and he never fell asleep. No nap yesterday.
Today, I got the “Poop. Poop!” plea pretty soon after I put him in the crib again. I stood up, leaned way over to smell his diaper (to giggles), didn’t smell anything, and refused to pick him up. He eventually fell asleep.
Jack: The Boy Who Cried Poop.
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Started: 7/12/20
Finished: 7/15/20
I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this one, but the one time I tried a Max Gladstone book, I couldn’t get into it. That turned out to apply to this novella, too, even though he had a co-author. The premise is really cool, but I seriously considered just putting it down and walking away. The writing was not working for me. I got involved eventually, and I think I liked it…? Interesting, but not really my speed.
Mother of the year
Okay, so obviously I shouldn’t let Jack watch TV all afternoon, especially not on a warm sunny day. I had a meeting, one I couldn’t just pretend to listen to (I don’t seem to have many of those anymore), so I got him his lunch, strapped him into the high chair, and turned on the TV. He was happy, I was working, and all was well. When my meeting ended, I cleaned him up and put him down on the floor. Before I even reached my hand out to the remote to turn off the TV, Jack ran across the living room, grabbed the armchair pillow, dragged it into the middle of the rug, and plopped himself down, giggling excitedly.
It feels cruel to turn the TV off when he’s so adorable and into it. I mean, I did it anyway, and we all lived to tell the tale, but he was so happy.