Birdfeeding
Jul. 30th, 2025 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.
.
What I read
Kris Ripper, Runaway Road Trip: A Definitely-Not-Romantic Adventure (2019) - a certain predictability that goes with the genre, really but kept up a reasonable momentum.
Annick Trent, By Marsh and by Moor (Marsh and Moor, #1) (2025): felt a bit so-so about this, not perhaps as taken by it as others of hers I've read.
Miranda July, All Fours (2024) - this was a Kobo deal so I gave it a try and eventually gave up. Is this maybe a generational thing? Hear it is quite A Thing, but really. (Was having pervasive flashes of my 'is it time to do some Doris Lessing re-reading?')
Also marked The Kellerby Code as DNF.
John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), which was a Kobo deal and which I had not read for something like 50 years - had forgotten how talky it is. Some points for having Village Lesbian Couple, but these were fairly frequent in crime novels of the time, weren't they?
LM Chilton, Everyone in the Group Chat Dies (2025). I found this did the suspense thing pretty well once it got going but I had some cavils over the tone and the general idea of 'hilarious serial-killer thriller involving true crime social media mavens'. I am not sure this is quite the same thing as Universal Horror movies cycling round to 'Abbott and Costello meet [Monster]' as franchise grows tired.
On the go
Back to Lanny Budd - have now started Presidential Agent (1944).
Up next
That's likely to keep me going for a while, but I've got my eye on Jessica Stanley, Consider Yourself Kissed, of which I have heard good report.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
This is an unsubtly sweet book, an homage to Puerto Rico and its people and also a lovely depiction of being a second-culture kid. Nico is a budding filmmaker, desperate to win the approval of the most famous Puerto Rican in the world, filmmaker and musical writer Juan Miguel Baranda. (I said "unsubtly," didn't I?) He's spending a glorious summer with his abuela and his two primos, looking forward to lazy days at abuela's house, glorious snacks, and beach time.
But the three cousins have far more adventure than they bargained for when they encounter a chupacabra--and the rest of the legends of Puerto Rico are not far behind. Nico and his family have to figure out what the mysterious creatures and sublime beings are trying to tell them, before the island they love faces devastation again--this time possibly for good.
Sometimes Nico's angst about his movie career and his parents' relationship slows the pace of this middle grade fantasy, but cousins Nessi and Kira are always there to pick up the pace--and Pineiro succeeds in what Nico hopes to do, painting a portrait of the island he loves so that the rest of the world can see what he loves about it.
This year’s Hugo Awards will be presented at the Seattle Worldcon on Saturday evening, August 16.
Like other categories, novelettes have some overlap with this year’s Nebula Awards. Here are my ranked votes, and I based them on how original I thought the stories are. You may very reasonably have different criteria and choices. In fact, these two reviewers made very different rankings.
6. “Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59) — Two sisters reconcile after a long estrangement, each with her own secrets. A slow, personal story that takes a surprising turn toward the end, but for me, the emotions are too muted.
5. “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58) — Friends try to meet, but they can’t find each other even though they’re in the same place. Then things get more eerie (no spoilers). Not quite horror but very unsettling.
4. “Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie in Lake of Souls (Orbit) — A denizen of a distant planet suffers a crisis of identity and a planetary explorer struggles to survive. They meet, and this changes some things. Not a new idea, and in my opinion not developed in a new direction.
3. “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024) — Every now and then, Asimov’s publishes a story that isn’t exactly science fiction. A woman takes a hard look at her life and must set it right, but I saw the ending from a long way off.
2. “By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024) — A wizard gets an apprentice, but there’s a problem — a monster-sized dragon problem. Well told with a little humor.
1. “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, May 2024) — The accidental discovery of a book printed on paper triggers an existential crisis in an electronic world with constant volatility. The understated storytelling style effectively delivers growing horror.