We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far

I am having a lot of trouble both picking up books to start and concentrating on them while reading. Even reading D&D sourcebooks, which is all my brain really wants to do right now, I sometimes have to read a sentence three times for it to penetrate. This is probably seasonal depression.

Anyway, I have still read some.

Recent: I finished Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft earlier this month, straight through, with no particular reason or plans to work on a horror campaign. Enjoyed it very much.

Finished Packaged Toronto: A Collection of the City's Historic Design, which I got from the spacing store last year and have been reading slowly ever since. Vaguely related to Four Apples but also just my city, yay. I would have liked more detail on most things but that's a constant state.

And in my quest for ever-smaller M/M pairings, I have started reading D&D: Honour Among Thieves fic, and I recommend Counterpoint by Geese_In_Flight if you like plot and ethical conflicts and people not talking about their emotions.

I also read or reread a bunch of short stories: more than half of The Bone Key (great as always, would have finished it if not for library holds), "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (definitely an early 19thC New England gothic story), and Mistakes Were Made by coveredinfeels (awesome. I don't know Dragon Age beyond watching consultingpiskies play a few times, so I can't speak to canonicity, but lots of fun and set in my favourite kind of modern AU).

Current: This is the part where I feel like nothing's happening. I am flipping through various D&D sourcebooks and reading the sequel to Counterpoint, above. Other than that, I have not made much progress with Middlemarch, and I read the first 15% of The Teller of Small Fortunes and I like it, there's no reason for me not to read it, but I haven't got back to it. Maybe because I haven't spent much time on public transit (I wrote that yesterday, but today I was on public transit and the focus still wasn't really there).

Future: I have got The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor out of the library again.

I have a Jeannie Lin novella out from the library, I have various fics lined up, and I am wondering if audiobooks would be more manageable right now. Alternatively I am considering taking March off from expectations.

Hi! Thanks so much for writing for me, and congratulations on your evident good taste!

If you want to benignly internet-stalk me to get an idea of my interests, Tumblr and AO3 are probably a better idea than DW. Though I have been book blogging recently.

I have requested Band Sinister by K. J. Charles, the Roaring Twenties Magic series by Allie Therin, Tortall by Tamora Pierce, and Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. I am happy with any fic rating or length, and welcome extra treats.

A large and random list of things I like in general: worldbuilding, hurt/comfort, huddling for warmth, teamwork, competence, adventure, lesbians, ethical dilemmas, loyalty conflicts, people being clever, twisty plots, gender issues, sibling or sibling-like relationships, epistolary fic, backstory, pining, physical affection, queerness, philosophy, romance, UST, found families, mythological and literary allusions, polyamory, slash, het, femslash, passionate platonic friendships, hidden worlds, cities, wilderness travel, banter, complicated plans, beautiful landscapes, angst, puns, magical realism, history, social class issues, older women with major roles, case fic, period accuracy, gen, smut, pwp, diversity of opinion, secret identities, fairy tales, specific sense of place... Feel free to use any of these, don't try to use all of them.

DNW: Child- or pregnancy-focused fic, high school AUs, fic entirely centred around a wedding or wedding preparation or Valentine's Day, incest, or graphic depictions of rape or gore or torture.

Fandom specific thoughts and optional details:
( Band Sinister - K. J. Charles )

( Roaring Twenties Magic - Allie Therin )

( Tortall - Tamora Pierce )

( Tam Lin - Pamela Dean )

Write what you know, I guess. I like piecing quilts more that Valancy does, though.

Title: In the Lighted Palace Near
Rating: G
Fandom: Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery
Characters: Valancy Stirling, Barney Snaith (or someone very like him), Valancy Stirling's awful relatives
Warnings/Enticements: Pre-Canon, Daydreaming, Canonical Family Dynamics, Chivalry, Fairy Tale Elements, Sewing
Summary: A tired knight rides up a winding road to a faint prospect of sanctuary.
Valancy pieces a quilt.
Wordcount: 1323 words

On AO3

I also wrote a sexy Carmilla drabble for Wanksgiving.

I've been having trouble sitting down to actually write this. It's almost as if I'm under a lot of stress right now. I wonder what uncontrollable near-future political event that could be about.

Recent: I reread a horror novel at the start of the month which will become evident after Trick or Treat author reveals.

Finished How To by Randall Munroe and Unmarriages by Ruth Mazo Karras. Also Biggles Buries a Hatchet, all basically good, discussed in last post.

Got a lot of knitting done while reading M. R. James on The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts, which was perhaps not the M. R. James I would expect to read in October, but nonfiction is easier right now. It's very affected by being written immediately post-WWI.

On which note, just now finished The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by K. J. Charles, right under the wire before it has to go back to the library. Enjoyed it and also very much appreciate the list of referenced Victorian ghost stories in the Acknowledgements.

Also lots of Kinktober.

Current: Still skimming through Painting Nature in Watercolour with Cathy Johnson, whose style I like. Writing style, I mean, but also the watercolors.

I read a third of The Silvered by Tanya Huff and liked it enough to put it on hold again even though my ability to focus on new long fiction isn't really there.

Rereading Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey. Mrs. Pollifax is still continuing slowly.

Have I made any progress on the paper books I have out from the library? No.

Oh, I skimmed the beginning of The Blue Castle recently because I had a fic idea, and I will need to read some Victorian medievalism to get a voice for that.

Future: The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher will probably come in soon. I also want to find another nonfiction book to read at North York Central library to distract from jobsearching. I have a giant list of options, which doesn't necessarily help.

Otherwise not sure whether I will be fine reading normally or want lots of comfort reading. I am looking forward to starting a long RWRB historical AU.

Hi! Thanks so much for writing for me, and congratulations on your evident good taste!

If you want to benignly internet-stalk me to get an idea of my interests, Tumblr and AO3 are probably a better idea than DW. Though I have been book blogging recently.

This year I requested Band Sinister by K. J. Charles, Dimension 20: A Court of Fey and Flowers, The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, the Roaring Twenties Magic series by Allie Therin, The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I am happy with any fic rating or length, and welcome extra treats.

A large and random list of things I like in general: worldbuilding, hurt/comfort, huddling for warmth, teamwork, competence, adventure, lesbians, ethical dilemmas, loyalty conflicts, people being clever, twisty plots, gender issues, sibling or sibling-like relationships, epistolary fic, backstory, pining, physical affection, queerness, philosophy, romance, UST, found families, mythological and literary allusions, polyamory, slash, het, femslash, passionate platonic friendships, hidden worlds, cities, banter, complicated plans, beautiful landscapes, angst, puns, magical realism, history, social class issues, older women with major roles, case fic, period accuracy, gen, smut, pwp, diversity of opinion, secret identities, fairy tales, specific sense of place... Feel free to use any of these, don't try to use all of them.

DNW: Child- or pregnancy-focused fic, high school AUs, fic entirely centred around a wedding or wedding preparation, incest, or graphic depictions of rape or gore or torture. See a couple of the specific fandom notes for exceptions.

Fandom specific thoughts and optional details:
( Band Sinister - K. J. Charles )

( Dimension 20 (Web Series) )

( Roaring Twenties Magic - Allie Therin )

( Tortall - Tamora Pierce )

Finally, my two vaguely femslashy horror fandoms (with the DNW exceptions):
( The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen )

( The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

This is what I posted on tumblr on the 2nd:

So I'd just got back into writing after nearly four months and then Family Stuff happened. Which of course hasn't been great for reading either, but it's nice having a habit of doing book posts.

Recent: So I finished most of what was Current on the last post and tried but didn't continue a bunch of others. Apart from that it was mostly a month of skimming through craft books and other things that won't count for my tracking purposes.

I did want to mention that Isabel Cooper's Nightborn gave me a bunch of feelings about vocations.

That said, I went to like five used book sales this month, and am again out of shelf space.

Current: Two rereads: Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, because if there's any time I deserve to reread a cute children's fantasy novel about being a wicked witch it's in the bus on the way to the hospital*, and Spectred Isle by K. J. Charles in audiobook in the evenings.

Also the latest the_comfortable_courtesan tie-in novella, and Patchwork: A World Tour by Catherine LeGrand. And today I read another section of Unmarriages while I was at the library. It's much less crowded there now that exam season's over.

Future: I'd like to pick up One Night in Hartswood again. Oh, and K. J. Charles has a book coming out on the 18th.

*Not the worst possible reason to be spending a lot of time in the hospital, but obviously that leaves a lot of space for things being Not Great.

--

...and then on the 3rd things got worse. Now they're slightly better again, but still:

I never know if or how to talk about personal things online, but I've known many of you guys for about a decade now so I'm not going to not talk about it.

My dad's in the hospital, and he's stable right now but matters are very uncertain. Also whatever happens, he's still 83. So it's difficult.

The Quaker request, rather than sending prayers, is to hold one in the Light. My dad and I are both nontheists, but I appreciate messages of support.

This month I finished a queer historical romance debut novel by an author named Emma and then started a queer historical romance debut novel by an author named Emma.

Recent: Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban, very cute, recommended if you want cute Victorian lesbian romance. Also some very nice RWRB fanfic, with ideas I wish we saw more of in fiction/writing in general.

And finished Quiet Pine Trees which was a great time all round.

At work, Biggles Goes to War by W. E. Johns - if you want to read good mid-20thC boy's adventure fiction, pick a Biggles book set somewhere European and enjoy yourself.

Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc, translated and possibly also adapted by Edgar Jepson (sources are unclear). This was fun, and I read a few of the short stories, but I did guess the twist on all of them, and in the novel I guessed it by chapter 5. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and probably says more about the development of mystery fiction over time than about my abilities, but it loses its charm when you read a bunch in a row. LOVED Sonia, though, I want something with her as the focus. Also, the last scene of this was so slapstick I wonder if it was an inspiration for Bugs Bunny.

Grim Tales by Edith Nesbit - much more romantic than the other ghost stories I've been reading lately, which were mostly by men and frequently by bachelors. Which of course may say more about the markets she was writing for than about her own tastes.

Current: One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny, enjoying it so far but not very far in yet.

Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie Judah, because I have been wondering if my brain would like nonfiction better right now, and this is exactly the kind of nonfiction I wanted.

Closed some AO3 tabs, opened some more AO3 tabs.

At work, Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome, which manages to avoid the frequent difficulties of Victorian Brits writing about Europe by making fun of Britain just as much. Also, I've never been to Germany, but much of his description of it reminds me startlingly of the American Midwest. Yay bicycles.

Future: Either A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court or The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective depending on what I feel like. Also most likely more RWRB fanfic.

And now to go make French toast for dinner.

I liked doing the reading post in January and thinking about books is better than thinking about family things! so here's another one.

Recent: Not all that recent now, but I finished Imre at the beginning of the month and I did actually enjoy it very much. It's very Edwardian, both in style and attitude, but along with the Weird Ideas about ethnicity there's also a sincere attempt to refute misogyny in gay male culture. And idk, the romance is just sweet.

Also read Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer and loved that too! And this one actually has surprisingly little in the way of Period Typical Attitudes. People respect each other's boundaries (or, at least, the good ones do) and there's a very nice portrait of life in urban boarding houses in the late 19th century.

Read Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher, which I loved all the way through, but I finished it at a point when I had kind of a lot of pain and PMS, which means I have ended up with no ability to comment on it. I liked the ground wights. Oh, also halfway through I decided Wren should ditch her party and marry me. Possibly I have a Type.

Reread an early Cat Sebastian, which, well, it's nice to see how much she's improved.

Still reading and listening to a lot of RWRB fic. I don't think there's anything I want to specifically call out as good, but it's nice and non-demanding. At least as long as I stick to AUs or shove it into the wish-fulfillment area of my brain rather than the class-conscious part. Oh, and I relistened to the first chapter of Life of Crime the other evening, that was great.

Current: In the middle of the climax of Gwen and Art Are Not in Love - thank god for skip-the-line copies, I have been reading this very slowly over the last six weeks. Recommended if it sounds at all like your kind of thing. Hopefully I will finish it on my commute tomorrow.

Have started The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole, because sometimes reading about living in a dystopia is, what's the word, sympathetic.

Last year I read The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith by Patricia Wentworth and wondered why she doesn't have the same reputation as, at least, Ngaio Marsh or Josephine Tey. Now I'm reading The Coldstone and finding it somewhat less impressive. Possibly because of SAD and possibly because it doesn't have any characters I straight up like as much as I liked Jane Smith. But the bit I read today had some very fun sneaking around at night pretending to be a ghost. Also a bicycle. I should read more books with bicycles.

Also I got Poetic Designs by Stephen Adams (one of my university professors) from my brother (we should have two copies between us, but mine has disappeared in a box somewhere) and am rereading that for nice practical unemotional nonfiction and nostalgia.

Future: I am going to pick up a gay sci-fi regency romance that I found in the local library and hope it is as awesome as it could be. And either Sixpenny Octavo by Annick Trent or One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny, depending on whether I feel more like even more regency or even more medieval by then. And I have If You'll Have Me by eunnieboo on hold at the library.

At some point I'm going to go through my reading file and run the stats to see if I'm actually reading more queer fiction this year than usual. Probably not, honestly.

I’ve been reading this off and on for about two months now, with speed depending on how comparatively gripping whatever I’ve got out from the library at the same time is. I haven’t read it before, but I do know some of the major spoilers.

For a while there it was going very slowly because it felt like an adventure novel crossed with a French farce, which actually would be a great idea if you did it on purpose. But now the title character is back on page and it’s going faster again.

It’s interesting, because of course The Prisoner of Zenda is a majorly influential work in Western literature (or at least Western pop culture) … which most people today haven’t actually heard of. And Rupert of Hentzau is unfortunately not a very satisfactory sequel. (Whereas the Scarlet Pimpernel series went on for over a dozen books.)

I want to blame it on Fritz being a weaker narrator than Rudolf, but that’s a cop-out, because of course Anthony Hope is writing both of them. And I can see how even just reordering the narrative in the middle would make everything way more suspenseful and remove the (perceived) need for Fritz’s defences of other characters acting on limited information.

Doesn’t pass the Bechdel test - lots of women, sometimes they even talk to each other, but there isn’t anything for them to talk about except men. But I am still disappointed that no one on AO3 has written Helga/Flavia fanfic, because Flavia deserves someone like that.

So I was listening to a podcast about an 18th century cookbook, and the host read out some recipes from it and added "These recipes seem lacking on specifics today..." and the two professional chefs I was listening with immediately said, "No, they don't. Those are perfectly normal recipes."

And I said, "For you, because you already know how to cook."

I've read several books on quilting and patchwork in the last year. Florence Hartley's Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy and Ornamental Work (1859) assumes not only that the reader already knows how to make patchwork, but that patchwork was how she learned to sew in the first place. It includes a few patterns, mostly just by showing you the finished design, and introduces the reader to the concept of album quilts, and has relatively specific instructions for English paper piecing. It gives descriptions of a few individual quilts. But mostly the author just rhapsodizes on the history of patchwork, because of course her audience already knows all about how to do it. On quilting there's even less.

The first full length book solely about quilts was Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them by Marie D. Webster (1915). She's got more space, but when it comes to instructions she mostly just tells you to sew the pieces together. She's more interested in appliqué than patchwork, and she has lots of detail on quilting, but she still assumes that of course you know how to sew and can make your own pattern.

Ruby Short McKim's 101 Patchwork Patterns (1931), now, actually tells you what size to cut, how to sew together, what seam allowance to leave, and usually what order to sew the pieces together. She tells you about bias, she tells you how to deal with triangles and diamonds, she tells you to baste appliqué before final sewing. She gives you actual pattern pieces and tells you how to cut them out.

The first book I read on quilting was The Perfect Patchwork Primer by Beth Gutcheon (1973). It goes through the entire process of designing and making a quilt. It tells you how to calculate fabric quantities. It has a diagram of how to do running stitch. It doesn't assume you already know how to sew, but it does assume you can figure out how to apply general rules to specific patterns.

All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland (2015) tells you how to tie a knot in your thread. (She does say this is because lots of people ask her this question.) It doesn't assume you have ever sewn before. It's an excellent book, lots of design inspiration, specific details on how to work with different shapes, etc.: and it has and repeats detailed instructions for everything down to the most basic tasks.

Gilleland's book is not actually representative of most books on quilting these days; it's a general introduction to a specific technique, and doesn't have any individual pattern instructions. Most quilting books don't have the basics, they certainly don't tell you how to operate your sewing machine, but they have extremely specific patterns: use this quantity of these five kinds of fabrics, cut them into these pieces in this way, join these together to make this segment, then those segments to make this one, and so on: an unbelievable level of detail for each individual pattern, that no one who has made more than two quilts would actually need, especially not if they had access to the internet.

I'm not objecting to this trend. It means that anyone can pick up a hobby as an adult, whether or not they have any experience with it or even know anyone else who does it. But I do have a strong personal preference for the middle of this progression; for books that tell you how to do things rather than what to do.

(I recommend all of the specifically named books in this post, though in some cases mostly for historical interest.)