some non-fiction books

Aug. 28th, 2025 11:52 pm
jadelennox: ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? (liberrian: community)
[personal profile] jadelennox

Mostly these days I'm reading fun romances because, you know, everything. But here's two exceptions:

I am not a good reader for non-fiction American history doorstoppers, but I picked up from the library Charles Sumner : conscience of a nation by Zaakir Tameez entirely on the strength of Jamelle Bouie's interview with the author, which intrigued me. And the book was really great, hard recommend. Also very apropos for the moment, in both inspiring and disturbing ways.

About 10 pages in I was thinking, was Sumner autistic? and then shortly afterward Tameez mentions the same speculation. And it's very much written as Sumner's neuroatypicality basically being one of the reasons we had Reconstruction at all -- while all the other Republicans (laudatory) in Washington were thinking about what was achievable, about the next election, not being rude to their more conservative friends, doing whatever centrist compromise David Shor and James Carville told them to do, Sumner was just blowing it all up to do what was right. The man was nearly beaten to death, and he knew the beatdown was coming. He just kept yelling about human rights and civil rights on the senate floor (using those very words), alienating all his closest friends, pissing off President Lincoln, and giving no quarter. And sometimes he was an asshole, clearly; and sometimes he was very much in the wrong. But still. We could use a morally uncompromising neuroatypical asshole senator right now.

Anyway, great book.

I also ILL'd The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, which I never read in high school. And wow, so glad I read it. I picked it up because it was referenced in an article about GenAI, but what I kept thinking as I read is how much all this oldey-timey historical eugenics has come roaring back. The confluence shouldn't have surprised me, because the GenAI weirdos and the eugenicists all travel in the same circles at the very least, and are often the exact same people.

Anyway, very well written, except it took me a while because so much racism. Also the fun thing about living near Harvard is that in any book about American historical upper-crust shittiness, you're going to keep reading about utterly loathsome people while thinking "and that one's a street! and that one's an elementary school!" (Also, "Carl Sagan named a book after this asshole? Really?")

To be fair the elementary school got renamed 20 years ago. I'm apparently now my dad. You know, "turn off where route 99 used to be" and "I'll meet you at Scollay Under".

(CW: Gould is both writing in 1981, and his method of argument is to say, basically, okay even if I take these racist assholes at face value, let me show that their science is shit and their data are nonsense. Which means he restates a lot of the racist and eugenicist arguments—and prints a few of their illustrations—so their racism is present in the book. It's not a style of presenting racism that a history of science book would use today, I believe. Gould is clearly repeating the racist arguments in order to refute them, it's just that he's slow and methodical in the refutations.)

Some conclusions on Wednesday

Aug. 28th, 2025 06:11 pm
queen_ypolita: Woman in a Mucha painting (Mucha by auctrix_icons)
[personal profile] queen_ypolita
I had a dentist appointment yesterday morning and I was hoping it would be the conclusion for treatment and I'd emerge with my permanent crown. No such luck, although things looked hopeful for a while. The dentist thought she'd found the right root canal, but it still eluded her. So she's referring me to a specialist for finishing off the root canal treatment and after that's done, I'll go back to her for the crown. She was confident the specialist would be able to sort out the root, so I'm hopeful. I certainly don't like the sound of the alternative, which is having her remove the tooth altogether and being referred to an implant specialist.

After the delivery fail on Friday, I immediately requested re-delivery to the nearby post office for Tuesday, but when I checked the tracking at Tuesday lunchtime, it looked like the request had disappeared into the ether: I could see it in the tracking but I'd never received any confirmation of it and the latest tracking status referred to the item's return to the delivery office on Friday. Despite the tracking page suggesting I should use one of the options to arrange the next steps, it didn't actually offer any. So it seemed to me the only option was to make a trip to the delivery office, which I did yesterday after work, and was able to pick it up. Now I have my new passport ready for arriving in Finland on Saturday.
jadelennox: Sarah Haskins of Target: Women! drinks Metamucil lemonade (sarah haskins: metamucil)
[personal profile] jadelennox

Americans, you know how we did just get updated covid vaccines approved, but because of RFK Junior's fuckery, your insurance will only pay for them if you are over 65 or have at least one condition that puts you at higher risk? I want to assure you that almost everyone reading this probably has at least one condition that puts you at higher risk.

The list of conditions includes, among the more obvious things (ie. cancer and immune conditions):

  • Disabilities, explicitly including ADHD, autism, sensory disabilities, motor disabilities, any limitations with self-care or activities of daily living
  • Depression or other mood disorders
  • Any heart condition, any diabetes, any asthma or chronic lung ailment
  • Obesity (BMI >30 kg/m2 or >95th percentile in children)
  • Smoking, current and former

and last but not least, and, I can't stress enough that this is literally on the list:

  • Physical inactivity

My siblings in middle aged (mostly): if any of you have nothing on the list of underlying health conditions, I salute you. Even your kids have a non negligible chance of being covered under that list.

Wednesday reading

Aug. 27th, 2025 08:03 pm
queen_ypolita: A stack of leather-covered books next to an hourglass (ClioBooks by magic_art)
[personal profile] queen_ypolita
Finished since the last reading post
The Hollow Crown, which was very readable, but apart from being able to talk about the death of Richard III based on the recent archaeological research, I don't think it added much to what Lancaster and York that I read earlier this year talked about.

A Merciful Sea by Katie Daysh, the third book in her Nightingale & Courtney trilogy set in a Napoleonic wars and navy context.

Currently reading
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin in Andrew Bromfield's English translation

Reading next
Not sure

Beinoni by Mari Lowe (2025)

Aug. 24th, 2025 09:45 pm
lannamichaels: "גם זה יעבור" (this too shall pass) (hebrew - gam ze)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Summary: Ezra Safran, age 12, is supposed to fight the manifestation of evil in the world when he turns 13. Unfortunately, evil is manifesting in the world and it's not even his bar mitzvah yet. And is fighting the manifestation of evil and vanquishing it really the right thing to do? A mid-grade book.

Read more... )

ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
The algorithm sent me this ATK recipe (paywalled, but linked for posterity, and pretty easy to extrapolate the basic idea) for a peanut butter chocolate quesadilla yesterday, and my instant reaction as a Massachusetts expat: "But where's the Marshmallow Fluff?! How can it be a Fluffernutter quesadilla without the Fluff? This is all Jarrett Barrios' fault, isn't it!"

Though of course, out here on the West Coast, getting ahold of actual Fluff is more difficult; when supermarkets have jarred marshmallow product, it's usually Kraft's Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme, which is more liquidy. ... hold on, I can get a two-pack of Marshmallow Fluff from my local Cost Plus?! As in the same Cost Plus where my mom used to buy us Botan candy to keep us occupied while she looked at household decor? ROFL.

Of course I ended up down the merch wormhole with my search results; I'd rather have it as a long-sleeve tee, but I love the logo on this What the Fluff sweatshirt from the Fluff Festival. 20th annual this year! Pairs well with this Ice Cream Weather hoodie from Gracie's just across the square that I've been meaning to pick up for years now. As well as my What a Cluster! tee. And now I want Goo Goo Clusters and Marshmallow Fluff. At least Moon Pies have made their way to the Bay? I can get those at my local CVS sometimes now.

Cherry on top of all this internet wormholing: while trying to figure out if Fluff was sold in any grocery stores local to me (besides Walmart, ugh), I stumbled across their recipe section, and amusingly enough, one of their most popular recipes is Lynne's Cheesecake. I swear I didn't submit it - the recipe looks like a New York cheesecake recipe, and I strongly prefer my cheesecakes burnt Basque or Japanese cotton style. But now I'm thinking, maybe I should tackle a burnt Basque Fluff cheesecake. Though admittedly, on my cheesecake back burner, I also want to make a cheesecake with Poppy Bagels' truffle schmear, Wikipedia has just informed me of the existence of a smoked salmon cheesecake, and Kat Lieu just posted a SPAM Basque cheesecake. Time to reup our Lactaid stock!

And now, of course, I'm earwormed with the old-timey Fluffernutter jingle.



(Yeah, I know, an original Fluffernutter has no chocolate, but sprinkling some chocolate chips on top of one side and melting before assembly is pretty standard. Though IME hagelslag or vlokken work better, and of course you can also get hagelslag at Cost Plus, 😂.)
ruuger: My hand with the nails painted red and black resting on the keyboard of my laptop (Default)
[personal profile] ruuger
I've had pretty much zero inspiration to write for the last few years, partially due to RL being what it is, and partially because I'm again in the downturn of my fannish cycle1 because season 3 of The Mandalorian failed to rekindle my fannishness, and the other Star Wars shows have been very hit and miss (my very unpopular Star Wars opinion is that Andor was the biggest miss for me).

At the beginning of this year I came up with this idea that to avoid distractions, every Saturday I take the bus to a library 40 minutes away at the other side of the city, and sit down in one of their workspaces for 4-5 hours with an energy drink and a laptop, and just write. Which has been very successful strategy, because in the last 6 months I have actually finished (very rough) first drafts for two novels and edited three short stories.

Now, I've been mostly writing orig fic, but today I forgot to take with me the printed notes for the novel I'm starting the next edit round on, and decided to work on some fic instead. And I actually wrote something! In fact, I took three very rough fic drafts and edited them to a more or less read-to-post state.

I say more or less, because all three are missing endings. Because apparently I cannot write endings anymore. The actual plot (and by plot, I mean Din Djarin recovering from whatever head injury I've inflicted on him) has been resolved, heartfelt confessions have been made, and then nothing.

Here is a gif illustration of how the stories now end:

Tonnin seteli

I'm very close to just going "And then the kissed. The End." just to get these stories off my WIP folder...

1I don't think I've ever talked about it here, but I've documented a pattern in my fannishness that I can sustain it for exactly two years since the most recent bit of canon that I've enjoyed. After that, my brain sort of starts to lose interest - not in a way that I'd like the canon itself any less, but that the fannishness for it requires active effort instead being constantly at the back of my mind.
ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
I did not end up making a dessert for choir this week that magically used any portion of our eleven cups of plum jam in the fridge. I made chocolate chip cookies, and they disappeared like magic (the only empty container on the snack table when I went to clean up after break!) and I got multiple compliments on them *preens*.

It was my usual recipe, doubled because I used the oversized 20 oz Ghirardelli bag of semisweet chips, and then I went through my spice cabinet and pulled out baharat and rosewater. Though I've made a couple of adjustments over the years, and didn't actually write them down online, so here, have my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. )

Ugh, I need a new chocolate icon, FJKR.

That being said, I went by Market Hall this morning since the internet said they were my local carrier for the See's Candy x McConnell's Ice Cream collab - they didn't have all the flavors, but they did have Coffee + Molasses Chips, so that got promptly plopped into my bike basket.

But while I was there, I also perused the other things they had available, and the regular old standard size 12 oz bag of Guittard semisweet chocolate chips was SIXTEEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS I HATE THIS TIMELINE.

Even checking online right now - Berkeley Bowl is claiming $12.39/bag, Guittard direct says $11.99/bag, and I am wondering how many bags of the semisweet I can order via my farmshare at $7.49/bag before they cut me off. Ghirardelli is still available at Berkeley Bowl for $8.79/bag, but I'm wondering for how much longer - before this summer, both of these were pretty close price matches, maybe 50c/bag difference and not always consistently in the same direction depending on what supermarket I was at? This feels like when vanilla prices exponentially spiked a few years ago and my $50 of vanilla backstock was suddenly worth $300.

... the farmshare website dropdown goes to 20 items. I'm not sure I want to be talked out of this. (I will probably buy at least 4, I am literally down to my last bag of chocolate chips and I usually have half a dozen bags on hand at any given time.)

PSA: The Middleman

Aug. 22nd, 2025 09:33 pm
trobadora: (Moriarty - OMG)
[personal profile] trobadora
Remember The Middleman?

Via [personal profile] muccamukk:
Javier Grillo-Marxuach (on BlueSky): hey everyone, wanna watch my tv show “the middleman”
on streaming with no added charges?
I have such fond memories of that show. And it's now freely available online Archive.org!

Delivery woes

Aug. 22nd, 2025 06:20 pm
queen_ypolita: Woman in a Mucha painting (Mucha by auctrix_icons)
[personal profile] queen_ypolita
I knew it was a possibility, so it wasn't a great surprise I was out at the dentist when the postie attempted to deliver my passport on Wednesday morning. Looking at the tracking, it seems I'd been gone for about 10-15 minutes when he tried. That makes more sense than the time written on the "Something for you" card, which was later than when I actually got back home from the dentist, and the card was waiting for me.

No worries, I thought, and booked a re-delivery for today. I've sometimes noticed that Friday rounds seem to happen later than some of the other days, but it didn't occur to me at all when I was looking at the options. I did remember it when the tracking on the app said the expected delivery window was from 12.37pm to 4.47pm. I was actually planning to finish work by 4pm and be out of the house soon afterwards, but I had to wait. And wait. By the time it was 5pm I was mostly convinced it wouldn't be delivered today, but on the chance it might I felt I couldn't go until the tracking said something definite about it. And eventually it did, with a delightfully untruthful "Delivery attempted" update about an hour after the end of the expected window. I don't think any delivery was attempted, I think it just went back to the depot; certainly there was no new "Something for you" card. But by then it was late enough that my plans for tonight, to go to London for tonight's Prom, were out of the window.

Rather than endure another round of this, instead of hoping to be home for it on Tuesday (when I'm planning to be in the office), or Wednesday (another dentist appointment in the morning), I've booked a re-delivery to the nearest post office for Tuesday.

The Legacy of Q, Helen Hanff

Aug. 21st, 2025 08:54 pm
nundinae: michiru, mirror (Default)
[personal profile] nundinae
 I suppose I’m in my middle-aged-and-older-women-and-their-memoirs-and-letters phase. Is this The Legacy of Q, strictly speaking, a memoir? I think it is, Helene Hanff probably would have been against that. It is only a pity that it is so short, though I couldn’t help thinking that Hanff somehow did not really believe her life would deserve a memoir – but maybe I am reading her all wrong and it’s all just false modesty.

I loved all the tiny little details about local histories: her work in the theatre, her work for television before the shows became properly scripted shortly after 1960 or so (I really need to read more about the history of television), her children’s books (although I would have hated them as a child). I loved the fad for “Nothing Books” in New York, and Hanff’s systematic planning of what she needs to read was extremely charming, somehow.

Her interactions with her fans were really crazy, though, especially from the point of view of an average European, clutching her pearls about privacy and privacy laws. Of course I do know European privacy laws are new even in Europe, and I do know as well that the rules about press reporting are less concerned with privacy in most anglophone countries, and I have read that book about press reporting in Japan in the 70s and 80s, with journalists basically camping on the lawns of politicians or suspects in criminal cases, and so on. But it’s still insane! Her fans knew her home address and telephone number. They would call her. They would send her letters. They would send her books to be signed (with no return postage, how rude!). Hanff quotes some of the letters and phone conversations, so one can see with one’s own eyes how wild this whole thing was. And well into the eighties!

It's a pity she didn’t write more about herself and some of her friends, like Genevieve Young, the literary editor and daughter of a Chinese diplomat murdered by Japanese fascists during the second world war. She seems an absolutely fascinating person, reaching leading positions in the industry when it was so hostile to women. But this is also where you can see how dated the book is: when Young got her US passport, Hanff writes in all innocence “The alien with the Chinese passport was finally an ordinary American citizen coming home” and then that Young was “as Chinese as General Motors”. Ouch.  

(no subject)

Aug. 21st, 2025 11:12 am
nundinae: michiru, mirror (Default)
[personal profile] nundinae
 This is so depressing: the number of people reading for pleasure in the US has fallen by 40% in the last 20 years. This kind of news makes me so down every time I see it, and of course it's hardly limited to the US. There are all kinds of reasons for this happening, and personally I think that being overworked is ignored far too often: it is so difficult to find pleasure in anything at all when you are so tired you just want to veg out (which of course will not help you relax, deceptive as it is). And it takes effort to reach the level of ease with reading that allows you to read for pleasure at all: it's really just like any kind of physical activity. But if you do manage, it's just about the most brilliant thing in the world, which is something I would love to be able to say in a persuasive manner to as many people as possible in the probably vain hope that they will read something and have fun with it, but well. Books are fun! Reading is awesome!

Wednesday reading

Aug. 20th, 2025 07:59 pm
queen_ypolita: A stack of leather-covered books next to an hourglass (ClioBooks by magic_art)
[personal profile] queen_ypolita
Finished since the last reading post
This Love by Lotte Jeffs, which I really liked, about best friends promising each other to have children together and choosing to become a family.

The Killer of Pilgrims by Susanna Gregory, with more dead bodies, stolen pilgrim badges, and other intrigue in medieval Cambridge. Another one that totally surprised me at the end.

Currently reading
Still reading The Hollow Crown

Reading next
Not entirely sure, but I'll probably pick up something new to read alongside The Hollow Crown. I ended up buying four new books at the weekend when I dropped in at Waterstones and it's not like I was out of options even before that.

Dear Rarepair creator

Aug. 20th, 2025 02:48 am
trobadora: (Huo Wensi - hypnosis)
[personal profile] trobadora
Dear [community profile] rarepairexchange creator,

thank you so much for writing a story or creating art for me! I'll be absolutely thrilled about anything you can create about the relationships I requested, and everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go,

My AO3 account is [archiveofourown.org profile] Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.

General Preferences

Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )

Fandoms and relationships

In somewhat alphabetical order - note that some sections are expanded compared to the sign-up form:

Jump directly to:
绅探 | Detective L: Huo Wensi/Luo Fei )

Grimm: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton )

镇魂 | Guardian (TV): Ya Qing/Zhu Hong )

Grimm/Guardian crossover: Renard/Ya Qing )

Legend of the Seeker: Cara/Darken Rahl )

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: Anastasia/Jabberwocky )

Time Engraver Crossovers: Time Engraver/Zhao Yunlan, Time Engraver/Jiang Yang )

长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen/Gu Xuanqing )

Even faster than expected

Aug. 19th, 2025 08:12 pm
queen_ypolita: Woman in a Mucha painting (Mucha by auctrix_icons)
[personal profile] queen_ypolita
At work today, I made a note to myself to check the tracking on my passport delivery just to see if it was even in the system yet. But when I got home I found there was no need, because there was a Royal Mail "Sorry we missed you" card, as they'd attempted delivery. So they'll try again tomorrow, which could work out nicely because I'll be working from home tomorrow. But I'll need to head out for my root canal dentist appointment, so I might still miss the postie, depending on the time they turn up, and would need to either pick it up or get another re-delivery for Friday.
lannamichaels: "In my defense the plums were delicious" written on a green background. (i ate your plums)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Title: I Transmigrated Into Cordelia Naismith!
Author: [personal profile] lannamichaels
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Rating: G
A/N: I love reading fics about an OC transmigrating and fixing everything. I've wanted to write one of my own and here it is. For those seeing this plot for the first time: the narrator is an OC who has transmigrated into the character of Cordelia Naismith. There is no other Cordelia Naismith running around, it's just her.
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: What was I supposed to do? Not fix everything?


So this was fun. )

Fic: Better Late Than Never

Aug. 17th, 2025 10:30 pm
rodo: chuck on a roof in winter (Default)
[personal profile] rodo
Title: Better Late Than Never
Fandom: Knight Flower
Author: [personal profile] rodo
Length: 7639 words
Rating: 12+
Genre: romance, humor
Pairing: Cho Yeo-hwa/Park Soo-ho
Disclaimer: everything belongs to MBC
A/N: written for kaitou during 2025’s [community profile] fandom5k

Summary: Yeo-hwa is back in Hanyang, but getting together with Soo-ho turns out to be a bit more complicated than she had imagined. But then again, when has their relationship ever been simple?


Mischievous banter, a hand on her wrist, an elegant twirl like a practised dance move, and Cho Yeo-hwa found herself in Park Soo-ho’s arms. )
lannamichaels: Brachos 2a, caption: "There's a debate about that" (daf yomi)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Idols and wine issues, and what exactly was going on with wine libations that just mixing the wine around was considered an issue, I would love to know.

The perek ends tomorrow, I got ahead For Reasons.

Read more... )

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