Finished reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, described as a novel but really a set of closely-connected short stories. As reviewers have said, the racism is far more scary than the horror, though the second half of the book does bring nice bits of the Lovecraftian “sure, magic is evil, but maaayyybe just this once?”.

Watched Die Hard with the dude this weekend. He thought it was really good even though it had a ridiculous premise.

Finished reading This Is How You Lose the Time War, a novella by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Well, wasn’t this a delightful read. If you like letters, time travel, and/or love, you’ll be delighted too.

Meghan and the bambina are camping for the weekend. The dude suggested we go have dinner with my mom.

Finished reading TARDIS Eruditorum, Volume 7: The Sylvester McCoy Years by Elizabeth Sandifer, part of a series of critical surveys of Doctor Who. Though a fan of the show, I’ve never seen a single episode of this era, much less read any of the novels, so I expected to skip my way through this volume. But Sandifer always had something interesting to say, and I found myself reading cover to cover.

Tonight’s kitchen victory: strawberry fool for dessert.

Baby juncos have hatched in the nest in the carport.

Set aside The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty about halfway through. I’m frankly a little baffled by the good reviews; I’m not sure I was even reading the same book. Maybe you’ll like it — obviously plenty of people do — but it’s not for me.

Finished reading Subcutanean by Aaron A. Reed, a horror novel with twinned premises: It involves parallel universes, and each copy of the book is uniquely generated. (Mine was seed 40105.) Very effective as horror, and successful (as far as I could tell) in how it was generated, though of course I’m very curious what another version would be like.

Finished reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, a short novel. Charming and cozy, as one expects from Chambers. About half the book resonated with me in a perfect, clear note, and I recognized the half that didn’t even though it wasn’t speaking to me.

Finished reading “Mick and Amanda and Reesa and Craig”, “Mick and the Spoonbender”, “Mick and the Fit”, and “Like Uber, but for Monsters”, new short stories by Greg Stolze. Like much of his work, it’s well-crafted, unsettling, and sticks with you for a while.

Finished reading The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison. Stars a minor character from The Goblin Emperor; this book’s main character is as fundamentally decent as the previous book’s. It was a pleasure to read, and to watch all the pieces come together at the end.

Tonight’s kitchen victory: butter chicken and naan.

Finished rereading The Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brian (Aubrey–Maturin, book four). Not quite as enjoyable as H.M.S. Surprise, but still a delight, including some choice bits about coffee, and a harrowing description of a hurricane.

A dark-eyed junco couple is building a nest in one of Meghan’s hanging baskets in the carport.