chris | Reading

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins has been on my shelf for a while.
Someone recommended it to me months ago when I was having trouble with miscommunication with a client, suggesting it might help me to let go of being so anxious about what someone else was thinking about me.
I immediately bought a copy but didn't read it!
I then heard some opinions that it didn't warrant a whole book on the idea because it really was as simple as just 'letting other people think and feel whatever they think and feel' and there wasn't any more to it.
BUT - it turns out, there is more to it than that!
I wouldn't say any of the information in the book is new, but it's framed in a useful and positive way, and it's all stuff that I think we need to be reminded of regularly, because it can be very helpful but also quite difficult to keep top of mind.
There's more nuance to it than I expected, and the book covers a lot more specific areas than I thought it would.
So it turned out to be useful and I'm glad I read it.

Air (Or Have, Have Not) by Geoff Ryman was a very quick 'nope' for me.
The text was very small and in an unappealing font - but it was more that I really disliked all the characters (especially the protagonist, who was racist and ableist in the first few pages) and especially the way the dialogue was written (very stilted and unnatural).
It also made me uncomfortable because this is a white male author writing largely women of colour and presenting them in a very unflattering light.
Perhaps it gets better as it goes along and it becomes clearer why all those choices were made - but I wasn't prepared to read more to find out.

alobear

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a short story collection by Ken Liu.
All the stories are either science-fiction or have fantasy elements - and they are very varied in tone, subject matter and style.
Some have a fairly standard linear format, while others spans huge lengths of time or take the form of transcripts, reports or pseudo-nonfiction narratives.
All the ones I read were all well-written, and some I enjoyed very much. But others went right over my head and still others were incredibly horrible or very, very sad.
At about the halfway point, I decided I wasn't getting as much out of the collection overall as I'd hoped and decided not to carry on.
But for anyone who likes challenging narratives that take a bit of thought, and isn't too put off by tragedy or violence, I would definitely recommend giving these a go.

ashkitty

Today is my parents' 54th wedding anniversary. Given how the last month went, I'm glad and relieved they're both here for it. My dad and I arranged to have flowers delivered to my mom in hospital, and we went up to see her. She's looking better! (And was out of bed and dressed, which isn't a small thing at this point.) One of the nurses had braided her hair. They're both so cute.

Horrendous traffic on the way back - Apple Maps suggested the ferry might be faster, and it probably would have been had we been able to get to it before departure. We thought we might need a treat afterward so went for drinks at a local place they used to visit a lot, pre-pandemic, for a snack and a drink. I'm glad my dad is up to going and doing stuff, because he was shutting down pretty hard for a bit.

I'm headed back to Wales next week, and really hoping it's safe to leave them alone to get better for a while.

althea_valara

Well, it's a SMALL bunny, but...

I was listening to the FFVIII soundtrack on YouTube while knitting, and they have video clips while the songs play. So I got to see Zell's intro again, and I had totally forgotten he's got a facial tattoo.

...Said tattoo is not unlike Windy's facial tattoo (Windy Storm is a Roegadyn and one of my characters from FFXIV).

So now I am imagining Zell in FFXIV's Sharlayan and getting his Archon Mark. Which is hard to believe, honestly! But can you imagine the hijinks he'd get into there?

Anyway, I don't have more of an idea than just that, so I release this bunny into the wilds.

And now I go back to knitting. THESE LEGWARMERS WON'T KNIT THEMSELVES!!!

alobear

The Beautiful Something Else by Ash van Otterloo is an odd little book about 12-year-old Sparrow, who is taken in by an aunt they've never met after their mother is sent to rehab.
Along the way, they buy some magic boots that transform their shadow into an independent creature that encourages them to break lots of unreasonable rules their mother always set - and thus find both friends and their own true identity.
It's a lovely story, full of delightfully queer and unique characters, with a wonderful message of inclusion and self-discovery. Some of the conversations are a bit more blunt, honest and emotionally open than I would expect from real people - but I love that in books because it's how I'd love the real world to be! The same goes for parts of the conclusion to the book, which felt a bit easy and unbelievable - but I was also happy to accept for the sake of the story.
I loved all the peripheral characters and the slightly magical feel to it with Shadow helping Sparrow break out of their rigid attitudes and behaviour.

althea_valara

DIVING RIGHT IN!!

[Image Description: 'A pivot table, showing I crafted over 47 hours in October on 11 different projects.' title='October 2025 Crafting Spreadsheet]

So yes! I tried a lot of projects in October! Some of which were abandoned! But I did have some finishes, so let's check them out:

[Image Description: A sticker puzzle featuring a Day of the Dead decorated skull.]

I got this sticker puzzle from my library several years back as a Take and Make kit. Man, I miss those kits! So much fun and they were FREE! Anyway, I finally did this one for The Lab challenge in Nerdopolis. The theme was "Science Lab" and this was my writeup:

Did you know Post-It notes were an accidental invention? A 3M scientist was attempting to create a super-strong adhesive when he accidentally created a weak adhesive instead. This adhesive was low-tack and responded to pressure. For this challenge, I did some experimenting with the weak adhesive on the back of my sticker puzzle (a Take and Make kit from my local library!). I tested to see if I could remove and replace the stickers to perfect their position (I could!).

Team shout out for Nerd Cred: My sticker puzzle is of a decorated skull for “El Dia de los Muertos” (The Day of the Dead). In Final Fantasy XI, there is an infamous quest to unlock your subjob that requires farming three items from monsters, one of which is a Magicked Skull that comes from skeleton enemies.

I've opted not to include the "before" picture here, showing the sticker sheet. This was fun and just challenging enough to BE fun and not annoying. It probably took me about an hour - I didn't time myself. I have another one of these sticker puzzles (a Monet print) that I hope to do for a future challenge in The Lab.

[Image Description: A pair of bright red lacy knitted legwarmers, worn.]

I only did one legwarmer this month--the other was completed in a previous month for a different challenge. I had to alter the pattern because my yarn was more of a bulky than worsted, and so I didn't get gauge. I guessed on pattern alterations which I thought worked well at first, but the truth is that there's not enough negative ease, and these slide down. Boo.

This legwarmer was submitted in the Nerdopolis Challenge "The Games We Played", with the writeup:

My family used to vacation in Hayward, WI when I was quite young, and we always brought board games along to play. Two of the games we played were Hungry, Hungry Hippos (which has a red playing board) and Hi-Ho! Cherry-O! (in which you collect red cherries). In honor of these memories, I’ve made a red legwarmer.

[Image Description: A crocheted water bottle carrier, with an attached pocket for a cell phone.]

This was a necessity. See, I've acquired a pair of earbuds which means I am now taking my phone to the gym so I can listen to Final Fantasy music while working out, as one does. Well, carrying phone AND water bottle AND keys AND towel AND spray bottle is a bit much, so I made this to combine two of the items into one convenient carry package. It works pretty well. Not perfect, but much better than juggling everything. I submitted this in Area 51, the challenge for finished WIPs or stuff made with stash yarn. This was from stash.

[Image Description: The start of a sleeve for a knitted cardigan. The generous amount of ribbing at the wrist is done, along with a few rows of the sleeve body. The sleeve is gray with a teal cable running down its middle.]

This is one of my Summit Seeker projects--those projects that will take more than a month to do. I decided to start with a sleeve and use it as my gauge swatch. My first attempt was last year, and I (a) cast on the wrong amount of stitches (b) used bigger needles at the time, and well, I just didn't like the fabric I was producing. So I frogged and started again with smaller needles AND the proper cast-on amount. Much happier now!

[Image Description: A crocheted approximation of Emet-Selch's soul crystal. It is purple and has an embroidered constellation on it, similar to the Gemini constellation.]

There was a challenge this month in which you were to make something related to a "bad guy" in your nerdery and I WAS NOT ABOUT TO MAKE AN EMET-SELCH DOLL, NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WANTED TO because ain't nobody got time to do a doll AND clothes in a month's time. I considered several options, included double-knitting something, but in the end I just winged it with crochet. It's... okay. Fulfills the challenge, but eh.

Some of the things on the list of things i tried are things I intend to go back to and finish (I *need* the Cat Lady Bag). Others, well, probably won't return to. But I had fun this month, for the most part.

Not fun: I worked on my Motion Picture Mosaic Cardi. FINALLY finished the sleeve I was on, so moved on to the right front. Problem: the edge of the back did NOT meet the edge of the front. I tried to hack a fix, but it didn't work (would have looked really stupid). So I need to frog at least SOME of the cardi. It's still in time out because I can't bear to look at it and figure out how much I need to pull back.

ashkitty

So back in September I talked about my mom being in hospital and a rehab facility and stuff. It has been a ride, friends, and it's still not over.

( In which Ash spends weeks arguing with the US healthcare system )

alobear

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri is a fantasy book set in an alternate Elizabethan England that is maintained by a cycle of endlessly repeating fairy tales, which force their 'incarnates' to play out the tale and usually die, only to be reincarnated so they can do it all over again.
Our protagonists are the current incarnations of The Knight and The Witch, who are doomed to fall in love and then die at each other's hands after a terrible betrayal. In this instance, they are both women, which doesn't really impact on the story at all, other than to sidestep any patriarchal toxicity in the playing out of their story, which is always nice.
I liked the worldbuilding and the struggle to break harmful cycles of destructive tradition and rigid resistance to change and inclusion. I liked both protagonists and was invested in the larger scope of their story, but I didn't really connect to their romance. It didn't feel as if they had much chance to explore or develop their feelings for each other outside of the role they were forced to play - we were told they were in love over and above their fated mates status, but I didn't feel it.
I did very much connect to the secondary romance between two of the side characters (which came late and unexpectedly and was absolutely adorable) and also the father/daughter relationships and the friendships shown, especially those that existed before the story started.
I was satisfied by the story and enjoyed it overall (more than I expected, given it's a romantasy) but that's about it.

Kynship by Daniel Heath Justice is a fantasy analogy of the persecution of Native Americans by white colonialists. And it's incredibly grim. So much death and destruction and tragedy and loss. Which I guess is the point and an important story to tell. But that didn't make it any easier to read. I admit I struggled to get into the story because it was so relentlessly horrible. But I'm glad I persevered because it got a lot more interesting as it went along, particularly with the introduction of the 'converted' Kyn who were trying to erase the ancient traditions of their own culture, in order to assimilate better to the invasion of the Men. But overall, there were a few too many characters and plot strands and factions to get to grips with and I wasn't invested enough to want to carry on with the series, despite really liking one of the friendships that struck up between my two favourite characters towards the end of this instalment.

alobear

I tasked my husband Dave with picking random numbers that would correspond to unread books on my shelf to build my November TBR - and one of the books he picked was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. And I'm so glad he did, because otherwise it would have languished there perhaps for a very long time and I had no desire to pick it up. I actually started it ten days early to give myself a jump on what is a ridiculous TBR for November - and I finished it before the end of October!

It's been a few hours since I finished and I think I'm still processing...

At root, it's a pretty dreary story about largely terrible people taking way too many drugs and doing pretty awful things - but there's something about it (the writing? the stark, realistic, painful yet horribly relatable and heartrending emotional honesty?) that meant I found it hard to put down.

By the halfway point, it was a strong contender for my best book of the year and an easy five-star rating. But the time jump at the start of the second half, and a lot of the second half itself, sent it a bit off the rails for me.

But then the last ten pages... The last ten pages! They lay out in blunt and overly didactic tones exactly what the book is meant to be about and what message you're meant to take away from it - and I figure, if you feel like you have to do that at the end of your book, you maybe haven't written a very good book...? But they are also ten of the best pages I've read in any book ever, and left me reeling.

This is not a perfect book by any means. And I can absolutely see why a lot of people might really hate it. And I'm really not sure I can think of anyone I would unreservedly recommend it to.

But I found it compelling, impactful, immersive, raw, emotive, involving - and likely unforgettable.

I hardly ever give five-star ratings for anything, but this book is making me reconsider my approach to that. Perfect? Far from it. But five stars? No question.

lnr

A short list of clocks which do not update themselves:

Matthew's bedside alarm clock. Several experimental button pushes to remember how.
Matthew's travel alarm clock. Fairly self explanatory
Small clock in the dining room. Turn the time knob, not the alarm one!
Oven. Doddle.
Microwave. A bit of poking, but not too bad.
Bike computer. Putting this one off as it requires a cocktail stick and remembering the right runes so you don't accidentally completely reset it. Write down the odo distance first before attempting!

The electronics (and the big living room wall clock, and the heating controller) all look after themselves, which is just as well, as there are quite a lot of them.

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A game for one to thirteen billion players

Let Them and Air

The Paper Menagerie

(no subject)

releasing a wild plot bunny

The Beautiful Something Else

Crafting Update, October 2025

Update on the family health stuff

Fated Mates and Indigenous Kyn

The Goldfinch

Clocks

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August 2025

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