Thursday, September 25th, 2025 04:18 pm
I have a job again! \^o^/ This means I am back on the audiobook train and today I wrapped up Road to Ruin by Hana Lee, book 1 of the Magebike Courier duology. This is a low fantasy dystopian novel located in a place called the Mana Wastes, where protagonist Jin works as a courier transporting goods between protected cities. Jin runs a lot of odd jobs for various clients, but her most lucrative by far are Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen. Jin has been ferrying love letters between them for three years--while hiding the fact that she's fallen in love with both of them. But everything changes when Yi-Nereen decides to run away and asks Jin to help her.

First, don't let the hokey title put you off. I started this one a bit warily, but it turned out to be quite a lot of fun! The worldbuilding is pretty light, but the novel seems aware of that and doesn't overpromise on that front. What is there serves its purpose well. It's not anything particularly novel, but not every book needs to be.

Jin, Yi-Nereen, and Kadrin are all wonderful protagonists; each of them has a distinct personality, perspective, and motivations, and I really enjoyed all of them. I was rooting for them the whole book and it was great to watch their various interpersonal dynamics unfold. If you're a fan of stories about mutual pining, this one is definitely worth checking out. However, if that's not really your speed, I didn't feel like the book spent too much time harping on about feelings we all suspect or know are requited. The romance element is definitely there, and it's a significant motivator for all three of them, but there's plenty else going on in the book too. 

The book avoids falling prey either to the Charybdis of black-and-white morality where everyone who stands in the way of the protagonists is evil, or to the Scylla of "everyone is friends if we just talk things out," which is a relief after some recent reads. There's definitely a sliding scale of antagonism here, with some characters who are obstacles but not necessarily bad people, and others who run much darker. 

I also enjoyed the presence of the "Road Builders." Jin and her peers inhabit the Mana Wastes, a treacherous desert wasteland where little survives and almost none of it without human intervention. They sustain themselves with "talent"--magical abilities common among humans, but becoming less common by the day--and travel along ravaged roads built by some culture who came before, about which Jin and her peers know very little. These are the "Road Builders" and are, I believe, strongly hinted at to be us. Lee keeps them a pleasant mystery humming in the background of everything else going on.

There were a couple contrivances near the end to aid a dramatic conclusion, but nothing so egregious I wasn't willing to continue to play ball with the book. Similarly, I'm on the fence about where this book leaves the relationship between the main trio, because it feels a little too much like Lee felt it was a necessary hook into book 2, but I'll reserve judgement until I've actually read book 2. And perhaps it's better that everything doesn't wrap up too neatly here. 

On the whole, I had a lot of fun with this book and I will definitely read the next one. 
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Thursday, September 25th, 2025 03:36 pm
Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse

The continuing adventures. Spoilers for the earlier works ahead.

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Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 09:22 pm
Sanders' Rhetorical, or Union Sixth Reader by Charles Walton Sanders

An advanced work of elocution.

Perhaps chiefly useful now for its selections and the light they cast on the era. It has several on the importance of the Union. It boasts of a wide variety, to fit young readers, and it does feature both prose and poetry on many different topics, fiction and non-fiction. I think it has more biographical essays than the earlier books in the series.

(Though it was amusing to read the side note that people used to eat a dish of fried dough known as a doughnut.)
Monday, September 22nd, 2025 01:15 pm
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

The continuing adventures of Jeeves and Bertie.

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Sunday, September 21st, 2025 09:58 pm

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

Saturday, September 20th, 2025 11:48 pm
How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

The further adventures of Bertie and Jeeves. Minor spoilers for earlier works.

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Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 10:49 pm
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse

Another Jeeves novel. Spoilers ahead for the earlier ones.

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Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 11:23 pm
Another week has passed us by and some of us might still be stampeding, some of us might be stepping more cautiously or even hobbling along struggling (like me) trying to balance out other commitments and squeeze in a few blasts of time to catch up.

If you've been using the table and tackling something each day, feel free to tell us all about it this week. If not here's the table and pick up with today's (or any other day that suits) and tell us about it when you can - use this post until I manage to get up to speed enough to make another one.

Wishing you well for the next week ahead and remember the aim of the month's challenges is that most can be adapted to fit what you need so if it says a 'flat surface', any type of flat surface will do - desks, worktops, floors, tables and so on. Similarly a vertical surface could be a window, a tiled wall, mirror or door. Part of the challenge is deciding how to apply the daily challenge (ha ha!).

This is supposed to be a low-stress challenge - if you miss a day, it doesn't matter, if the day's challenge doesn't suit, repeat the day before or start on the next day's. With the exception of two days, the challenges should take about 10 minutes, if you want to spend longer that's great, judge by your personal available time and energy.

To make it easier to take part and not be held up by time differences and days when I'm not able to post, all challenges will be posted in the table below the cut to aid both those taking part and the daily poster.

My biggest request for the month is that, whenever you can, you join in the chat - even if you haven't done the day's challenge come and cheer for others. We're here for the ups and downs this month so you can tell us when you're struggling as well as celebrate your successes.

Daily Challenge Table shown below the cut )

And so today's challenge is, depending on where/when you are reading this (but I'll go with the 17th/18th) to either spend 10 minutes on a flat surface or on a vertical one.

Good luck and enjoy what's left of your September.
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 12:15 pm
Last night I finished Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a sci-fi book about a motley crew of spacefarers who "drill" wormholes to enable rapid travel across space for the diverse galactic alliance known as the GC. At the start of the book, they are offered a bid on a particularly difficult, lucrative job, and can't resist taking the bait.

This should be (another) lesson to me in not going all-in on a creator because I've enjoyed one of their works. I loved Chambers' To Be Taught, if Fortunate, and I've heard plenty of internet praise for The Long Way, so when I saw it at the bookstore recently, I dropped $20 on it readily. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it.

First - if you picked up this book looking for the femslash, it's barely there, and it's a lot more friends-with-benefits than romance. The other two romances in the book get a lot more attention. This isn't a complaint from me, but if what you really want is F/F romance, it's not really here.

This is a character-driven book with barely a plot, which wouldn't be a problem if the characters were interesting. As it is, they are functionally interchangeable: a crew of people who are all optimistic, friendly, emotionally open, painstakingly polite, and obsessively well-intentioned (except for the one guy who's a Jerk, who exists to be a jerk whenever the scene calls for someone who needs to be less-than-fanatically-polite or there's a chance for Chambers to squeeze in another instance of his being a jerk, even when he's technically right). There is no character growth to speak of; none of these characters changes at all between the start of the book and the end. There's no complexity to anyone.

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Sunday, September 14th, 2025 10:12 pm
The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse

A Jeeves book. One with continuing history, so spoilers for earlier books ahead.

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Sunday, September 14th, 2025 06:14 pm
I'm a grad student and I read best on paper whenever possible. That means I have a lot of paper around my apartment. I need to hold onto it because I'm taking notes and working towards writing my thesis. So what to do so I can find what I need, what I need it? a hybrid paper-digital system inspired by the Kerlan Collection archives, where I've visited a few times.

Each item is logged in my research bookmarks with tags and notes and the location is listed as "Box X: Folder X." I also mark that on the first page of each article so I know where to put it when I find it. (I also date when I read it digitally and on the paper. My goal eventually is to digitize my highlights and notes but I haven't had time yet.)

I haven't applied this to my other papers (apartment paperwork, pet paperwork, copies of bills and taxes paid, and so on) but I don't see any reason this hybrid digital-analog system wouldn't work for any kind of paperwork.

This is the system I'm using for my grad studies and I thought it might help others uncluttering, especially with that stuff you have to hold onto in print for whatever reason.
Sunday, September 14th, 2025 12:54 am
Managed to clean off and move my loveseat so an energy auditor can check to see what areas need more insulation for winter. Quite a bit of the items were laundry, so I spent the weekend washing.

Too bad we’re having a late summer heatwave or I would had taken a vacuum cleaner to be repaired at one of Hennepin County’s Fix-It Clinics. :/

Mom’s getting to the point that she won’t be able to drive much longer, so this time it is likely we’ll have to sell the Buick, so I’ll clean that out soon.
Saturday, September 13th, 2025 11:38 pm
This post covers planting the candy jar terrarium. Begin with Part 1: Setup.

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Saturday, September 13th, 2025 11:37 pm
Today I assembled the large candy jar terrarium. Continue with Part 2: Plants.

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Sunday, September 14th, 2025 10:12 am

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

I personally haven't managed anything, having been--to quote the vernacular--'flat out like a lizard drinking' on other tasks. But I'm here to celebrate the rest of you!

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.