Song of the Day: April 26

"The Lion, the Beast, the Beat" by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

Song of the Day: April 25

"The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" by Traffic

Song of the Day: April 24

"Still" Daughter cover by Paola Bennet

For the bookworm! 7, 10, 21, & 45 please?

Also I didn't notice it as a question, but what are you reading right now?

Thank you for the questions; sorry for the delay! I had to really think about some of these, and then I fell into work and got distracted, whoops

7) What kind of common romance tropes do you enjoy and what kind do you dislike? I like forced proximity and some types of inhibition-reduction scenarios (both for similar reasons--I want them to talk! not a huge fan of full-on 'drunken confession' style feelings dumps, I just want them to be more open/honest than they would otherwise be. the inhibition-reduction should be the beginning, not the end of the romance arc, if that makes sense). Also loyalty/dependability is the most important thing to me, so I love combat couples and that aspect of hurt/comfort and caretaking stuff. Big fan of only one bed and cuddling for warmth, for all of these reasons and because they're cute.

There aren't really any tropes that I won't ever consider reading, but I have to be really careful with enemies-to-lovers (they don't have to like each other while they're still in the 'enemies' stage but if they don't respect each other all along, or if they still don't like each other once they get to 'lovers', I'm bailing) and mentor-mentee-type dynamics (the consent vibes are often too dicey for me, in a that-dynamic-specific kind of way that I haven't ever been able to articulate well enough to pick out precisely what I dislike, even to myself, so I often get partway through a story and then have to dip just because I'm ambiently uncomfy. very unfortunate).

10) Favorite classical literature: I have such trouble with 'classical literature' as a set. What counts? I like Dracula but not Frankenstein, I like Austen but not Bronte, I like epics--Gilgamesh, Beowulf, the Odyssey, the Iliad--I love Alexandre Dumas and JRR Tolkien and Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lewis Carroll. I've liked the entire story of about half of the Oscar Wilde and Ray Bradbury works I've read, and I've liked about half the story in every Dostoevsky work I've read. I like most but not all of the Narnia books, and I love Watership Down, and I feel like this is a really British list but so are most of the 'classics you have to read!' lists I'm seeing in my quick google search, so what can you do.

21) The book(s) on your school reading list you actually enjoyed: I wasn't a terribly obedient or focused student, so I sort of read the textbook but didn't follow along with most of my classes? Definitely they covered Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet, and I enjoy Shakespeare. I don't know which Twain they read in class, but I like all the Mark Twain I've read. Edgar Allan Poe, also. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls! That one I didn't read in class because I'd read it before and knew it would make me cry, but it was definitely on the list and I definitely enjoyed it (though it does definitely make me cry).

45) What book(s) would you sell your soul to get a TV or movie adaptation of? My first and overwhelming response is a tv series for the Heralds of Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, though that might be because the idea of a Last Herald-Mage Trilogy adaptation got dangled in front of us in 2021 and it's been crickets since. The Enchanted Forest (or even just Dealing with Dragons) by Patricia C Wrede, or the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce, or the Charlie Bone/Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo would make good shows, I think. I really enjoyed the tv adaptation of The Dresden Files, also, and would love more of it--it was diverging significantly from the stories as written by Jim Butcher, but not in any way I objected to, and the actors were great. I would absolutely sell my soul for a good movie of The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.

What am I reading right now? I was reading Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey, Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire, and The Art of Deception by Stephanie Burgis when you asked. Now I'm reading The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey (backtracking slightly to get this reread of the Elemental Masters series in better order--I jumped in at Phoenix & Ashes after my bookworm ask meme answers the other day), Silver Silence by Nalini Singh and Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle, and there's a ton of paperbacks in my room waiting for me to make my next hardcopy decision. I think probably it'll either be the Dragonlance: Dwarven Nations books by Dan Parkinson (first book The Covenant of the Forge) or The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey.

Song of the Day: April 23

"Lion's Den" by Jhameel

Song of the Day: April 22

"Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" by Billy Joel

Song of the Day: April 21

"Think About You All of the Time" by Toby Keith

With the casting of season two of PJO coming up, I keep seeing people talk about who they want for certain roles like Tyson, Thalia, Silena, etc., but I think we’re forgetting about the most obvious and important casting decision. By that, I mean I will never be truly happy until Jack Black is cast as Blackjack. I genuinely couldn't care less about the casting; I trust the casting director with my life, but if I don’t get to hear the voice of Jack Black call Walker Scobell "boss,” I don’t think I’ll ever be truly satisfied. If Lin Manuel Miranda can be Hermes, I fully believe we can get Jack Black

Song of the Day: April 20

"On My Mama" by Victoria Monét

Favorite heist books?

I'm realizing now that I haven't read any of the pure crime fiction books which would be the literary equivalent of the heist movies I love so much, maybe because of my inability to gracefully handle the stress of true thrillers (as I was just saying to sunkentowers). I have read a few especially quality fantasy/sci-fi heists, though! In very loosely most-to-least-strongly-recommended order:

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes (first of the Rogues of the Republic series. it was a challenge for me to pick a favorite of them, but I think probably this is the one. very funny, very clever, love the characters)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (intense and with especially good characters. the sequel Crooked Kingdom is also good but not quite as heist-y)

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (hippo-cowboy alternate history! explosive hippo river heist! it does have a sequel but I haven't ever read it)

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (my favorite of the Queen's Thief series, though they're all good in their own ways. the main character is sort of in a constant state of con and/or heist behavior)

Artemis by Andy Weir (standalone sci-fi heist! how odd that this is the only standalone novel in my list)

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (romantic comedy suspense thing! first in the Fox and O'Hare series, and the only one I've read)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (easily the best of the series by the same name, and honestly the only one I'd really recommend reading. clever worldbuilding and writing, and the twist is lovely)

Skin Game by Jim Butcher (part of the Dresden Files series and it was such a surprise to me when I found out this one--fifteenth in the series!--was going to break with format and be so heist-centered. I don't think it works as a standalone and I wouldn't necessarily recommend the series as a whole, certainly not if what you're looking for is crime capers, but I enjoyed it so so much and couldn't leave it off)

Hey hey, sliding this in under the door in the morning:

For the book as meme, 4 (fav sci-fi), 13 (fav thriller), and 37 (least fav trope used in a way that works for you)?

Did not actually read-read the other responses yet, so questions may have duplicated.

4) Favorite sci-fi: The answer I gave carrionfourth was: "The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter". I stand by all that, it's absolutely correct, but now I'm also thinking about Anne McCaffrey's works in general, and the incredible impact it had on me when I was a kid, to see her work her worldbuilding around so that she had fantasy staples like dragons (the Dragonriders of Pern) and unicorn girls (literally she named that series 'Acorna the Unicorn Girl'. I am in awe) and selkies (the Petaybee serieses) but with so much space travel and science around them that the books themselves still felt clearly sci-fi. She's not the only one, not by a long shot, but she was the first I read, and she changed the way I thought about genre conventions on a fundamental basis. There's a good chance that without her, I wouldn't have ever bothered reading any sci-fi, actually. There was a little chunk of time there where it seemed very much to me that fantasy books were for people (mostly girls) who liked animals and cared about having friends and sci-fi was for people (mostly men) who liked being very smart and having other people be afraid of them, and if I'd kept going with that mentality I think I'd be a much unhappier person today.

13) Favorite thriller: Well, having just said all that about being so glad I was taught to think outside the genre binary as a child, now I must confess I don't read a lot of thrillers. There's a level/type of suspense that just translates as stress to me, in a way I don't particularly enjoy (I watched a couple episodes of the Fargo show with Duncan and the intensity kept ramping up and when we turned the tv off my neck and shoulders ached. I'm just not good at it). I do really like mysteries--favorite mystery novel is probably The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie; I mostly preferred the Marple shows but I love the Poirot books--and romantic suspense is great--Elizabeth Lowell (fave Lowell book is Always Time to Die) and Jayne Ann Krentz (Lie to Me) are both fantastic romantic suspense writers--and the crossover of both that is the JD Robb In Death series is an unending delight to me. But mostly I'd say I go for mysteries or adventures over thrillers.

37) Least fav trope used in a way that works for you: I really love The Last-Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, even though it has a tremendous amount of angst and suffering compared to my normal tastes, kills off the main character's love interest in the first book, and then has him show up again reincarnated to pair off with the main character once more. Only Mercedes Lackey could keep me genuinely invested through that storyline. Azure Bonds by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, also: amnesia, followed by false memories, with a final flourish of 'am I even a real person if these are my origins', but actually the book's a heckin romp. It's the first in the Finder's Stone trilogy, which is overall deeply entertaining but a real nightmare to try to explain or describe to people who haven't read it.

Song of the Day: April 19

"Save It for a Rainy Day" by Kenny Chesney

Book worm questions: 43, 44, 49, and 50 please :D

43) Title of a book you own that's in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey! Alas, I don't have it to take a picture of, because it fully disintegrated. It was an old printing, on the pulpy paper that yellows quickly and swells and curls in humidity, and I got it already second-hand and from an un-air-conditioned stall at a giant flea market, and then I read it a lot. The glue went out of the binding and it was just a collection of pages, and the front cover had already softened to nothing, and then one day I was rereading it and couldn't hold the pages together well enough to read it at speed anymore. Runner-up is Dragonlance: The Lost Histories: The Dragons by Douglas Niles, which is as you can see now two half-books and a free-floating front cover. I got it in 1998 and have read it multiple times a year every year since.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: I listed a bunch in my answer to carrionfourth, but actually The Dragons is another good answer, as is Key of the Keplian by Lyn McConchie and Andre Norton. I got them both at the same time, and grew up with them (I was six in 1998. they might not have been entirely age-appropriate, but that didn't matter, because what they actually were was a bribe. to keep my mouth shut, about something which I won't now disclose, because they were a damn fine bribe). Also the Dragonlance: Dwarven Nations trilogy by Dan Parkinson--all of them to some extent, but most specifically and vividly the scene in the second book, Hammer and Axe, where Handil the Drum collapses the caverns. The first time a book broke my heart.

49) Do you prefer hopeful, humorous, very emotional or darker books? It's very important to me that a story has a satisfying and happy ending (gotta be both) but I usually enjoy any sort of tone on the way there. Sometimes I'll be in the mood for funny or intense or agonizing or uplifting specifically, but I think more often it's the satisfaction I crave.

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This one is definitely not something I’ve never read before but it is something I’m always looking for more and better examples of--people having mind-links with animals. I do want to see there be bleed-through effects so that the humans pick up more of their friend's instinctive behaviors and the animals gain more human perspectives, but I'm so so picky about how it's handled. Love how Tamora Pierce did it with Daine in the Immortals quartet. A Companion to Wolves by Elizabeth Bear came close but then really lost me at the end, but I love how I've seen fandoms use the setting as an AU. Oh, you know what. It's like a hyper-specific somewhat more violent daemons AU. I'm looking for something like His Dark Materials, but with more cool fight scenes and less religious undercurrents. All recommendations welcome!

27 50

27) What was the first book you remember reading as a kid? Fox in Socks!! I used to be able to rattle it all off by memory, but now I need prompting for each new segment. I still got the tweetle beetle battle down though. Immense admiration for the good Doctor Seuss. A man with patter to spare.

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? Again not something I've never read before but something I'm always looking for more of--fairy tales but in space. How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (by K Eason, very good book, very fun shape to the worldbuilding, do recommend, sequel a little shakier but still worthwhile) is not enough, I want as many as I can get.

1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

Bookworm meme 1 20 31 35 🐛

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: Best new book of 2024 so far would have to be Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire. Preventing the 'forgetting about allies' issue I've got as my answer to #35 below could be considered the entire point of the book. It's part of the InCryptid series, which is about a family of cryptid conservationists, and they are a family. Complicated dynamics and intergenerational ties and love and loyalty and all. Incredibly well done. I cried like a baby.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? Money's been tight so it's been a minute since I sought out books that were truly new to me--not that I haven't been buying books! I would surely perish. I've just mostly been getting ones by authors I trust, often in ongoing serieses, so it's less of a gamble on enjoyment--but when I had more of a risk-taking budget I'd spend ages looking through recommended lists. I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters and blogs that talk about books, and there tend to be even more recommendations in the comments and replies to those posts. It's lovely to comb through.

31) Do you mostly read through e-reader; reading app on phone; on your laptop; a physical copy; or by audiobook? Phone, laptop, and paper copy! I usually have at least one story (book or fic) open on each device and then a book by my bed. When I was going to campus in person more regularly, there was often also a second paper book in my bag.

35) Least favorite trope in your most favorite book genre: Forgetting about allies. I read a lot of ongoing serieses where characters will accrue friends and allies, often fairly close ones, and then as soon as the immediate need for that character is gone, they vanish. I understand that there's only reasonably room for so many characters in one story, but what I mean is that they vanish. They aren't happily settled on their own journeys, they aren't unavailable for any particular reason, they just don't exist to the main characters anymore. A special hatred in my heart also for next-generation sequels where the parents aren't dead but still aren't going to help.