Well that was a depressing but right decision

[cornerofmadness]

I was talking to Mom over lunch and decided a) it's raining b) I'm still tired c) much more sore now that the beginning of the week. She said you DID have surgery less than 3 weeks ago. You should stay home or go to that Krampus thing. I wanted to come but I'm not coming down there again.

And she's right. I shouldn't go so I didn't and it was depressing but it was right. I was so tired when I got home I couldn't even get up on the porch on the first try. AND my secretary was torqued off because she had never heard of Galaxy con and her mom lives like 10 minutes away. Next year she said we're going and parking there and Mom will let us roll out in front of the con. Works for me.

INstead, I'm going for an early dinner with friends in Athens and to Krampus. Not the parade as I'm not up for a walk that long but there are vendors and stuff at the community center so there you go. I wanted to do that too so I'll get that much done.

I had a student tell me today my lab practicum killed her soul. My only thought was 'why thank you.' (how to know I have sadistic tendencies)

It's that time of year again, my tea advent review (these are from adagio). Day 1 - Pumpkin spice (black tea, cinnamon, ginger and clove, marigolds and other pumpkin spice) it is nice but the clove is a bit strong and anaesthetic

I need your help

the 2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge and I do it every year. However this year has some weird AF prompts, some that are SO specific. So what I'm looking for is recs from you AND if you have books that fit (or have friends that do), let me know. I belong to a very large PS group on GR and they make threads for each prompt. I will drop your books right in there so hopefully it'll drive a little business your way. You can see the prompts at the link or A book with the word "leap" in the title
A bildungsroman
A book about a 24-year-old
A book about a writer
A book about K-pop
A book about pirates
A book about women's sports and/or by a woman athlete
A book by a blind or visually impaired author
A book by a deaf or hard-of-hearing author
A book by a self-published author
A book from a genre you typically avoid
A book from an animal's POV
A book originally published under a pen name
A book recommended by a bookseller
A book recommended by a librarian
A book set 24 years before you were born
A book set in a travel destination on your bucket list
A book set in space
A book set in the future
A book set in the snow
A book that came out in a year that ends with "24"
A book that centers on video games
A book that features dragons
A book that takes place over the course of 24 hours
A book that was published 24 years ago
A book that was turned into a musical
A book where someone dies in the first chapter
A book with a main character who's 42 years old
A book with a neurodivergent main character
A book with a one-word title you had to look up in a dictionary
A book with a title that is a complete sentence
A book with an enemies-to-lovers plot
A book with an unreliable narrator
A book with at least three POVs
A book with magical realism
A book written by an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated person
A book written during NaNoWriMo
A cozy fantasy book
A fiction book by a trans or nonbinary author
A horror book by a BIPOC author
A memoir that explores queerness
A nonfiction book about Indigenous people
A second-chance romance
An autobiography by a woman in rock 'n' roll
An LGBTQ+ romance novel
Advanced

A book in which a character sleeps for more than 24 hours
A book with 24 letters in the title
A collection of at least 24 poems
The 24th book of an author
A book that starts with the letter "X"

I am NOT thrilled to have some of them and the really weird ones to me are a protagonist that is 24 years old and another is 42 years old. How hard is it to find those very specific ages!! However by mere chance, sorting thru piles of books I found that new one where Emily Dickinson is the sleuth and damned if it wasn't see January 1855 and she didn't turn 25 until December that year. Score. Frankly I see me reading manga for the K-Pop thing (as I have zero interest in that unless someone knows a good murder k-pop story) and just watch me read one piece for the pirates (actually I have a pirate book for research for a novel ELD and I were writing and abandoned. I don't like enemies to lovers much so recs welcome (any of that in the first Witcher book?). Also autobiography of women in rock and roll that is HARD, even googling it didn't bring up much.

And now it's time for Friday Fandom recs



The Owl House
Vee is a Hugger, The Common Mold Does Not Change That
Day’s Poison wip
World’s Collide wip
Love vs Loyalty wip
Ballad of the Broken
A Time to Rest
Popular. wip
Congratulations!
Fleeting Familiarity
Sickness.

Prodigal Son
A Quaint Little Cottage. WIP
Love Bleeds

Stargate Atlantis/ Stargate SG1
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
Doctor’s Orders
Keeping Secrets


Torchwood
Too Charming
The Stranger

Teen Wolf
Ready to Learn Something New

Various
Tea For Two Lord of the Rings
Animal Control 9-1-1
perfect's going outta style Star Trek Voyager art
Days of Future Past Buffy the Vampire Slayer wip
Stray 9-1-1
Keenly Felt. 9-1-1
drowning in circles Star Trek Voyager art

Jeu des princesses avec les pommes d'or de la discorde, inscribed 'to the fairest' Yuri on Ice!
Unread Messages Harry Potter

Comments

[kalloway]

I have a whole shelf of books about women in rock and there are a ton more I've only read via interlibrary and have wishlisted. Is there a specific sub-genre/time-period you're most interested in?

[cornerofmadness]

Cool, thanks. It has to be an autobiography and for my own tastes, I'd like it on the shorter side (I know, I know). My musical tastes are wide open so long as it meets that requirements (let's say preferrably under 350 pages), that would be great. I appreciate the help (and hopes my library can get a hold of something)

[fauxklore]

Patti Smith wrote Just Kids, a memoir about her relationship with Robert Maplethorpe. I haven't read it but it got good reviews.

[cornerofmadness]

thanks

[kalloway]

I'm In the Band: Backstage Notes from the Chick in White Zombie (Sean Yseult) is ~200 pages, largely images though plenty of memoir, too, from time before, during, and after White Zombie.

Girl in a Band (Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth) is a bit longer but still not too much. It's a bit more pointed that Sean's book, but also a very good read.

[cornerofmadness]

oh cool thank you i appreciate it

[kalloway]

You're welcome. Good luck with the challenge!

(Oh! I nearly forgot - Jayne County's Man Enough to Be a Woman, about the first transwoman in rock.)

[cornerofmadness]

cool thanks and I saw a similar one for Punk

[cornerofmadness]

cool thanks and I saw a similar one for Punk

[fauxklore]

Two recommendations:

1) over the course of 24 hours - One Day by Gene Weingarten

2) neurodivergent main character - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

3) Turned into a musical - Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

[cornerofmadness]

Cool thanks. I've read Haddon's book (the nice thing is there are now a TON of middle grade books with neurodivergent characters so kids can have rep)

Actually I could use Fun House for the LGBT memoir and my university's library has it so bonus

[suzume]

Oh, one of my online friends has self-published at least two books! I've read The Price and Prey of Magic (and I also have The Escape of Lady Aigle in my possession, but I haven't read it yet).

[cornerofmadness]

oh cool, thanks. I'll be sure to drop that in the thread

[suzume]

You're welcome!

[dragonydreams]

I had a very WTF reaction when I looked up Popsugar's list for 2024 this morning. I still need to do an in depth comparison of my own TBR list to see what fits this year's prompts, but why are there so many age-specific ones? And year-specific prompts.

For the deaf author prompt, I have Deaf Utopia by Nyle DiMarco (memoir).

For a book set in the snow I have Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis (romance). Or I'll actually get around to finishing my read read of the Witches of Eileanan series by Kate Forsyth, some of which takes place in very snowy lands. There's also dragons in that series.

I also have The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera which is the prequel to They Both Die at the End - both of which take place in 24 hours.

For Video Games, I might do the sequel to Ready Player One.

[cornerofmadness]

While I like that there aren't a bunch of celebrity crap and repeats this year, yeah this is weird! The age ones are SO limiting but let me help you there.
A book about a 24-year-old - Because I could not stop for death is a mystery where Emily Dickinson is the sleuth and she's still 24 when it opens.

and A book with a main character who's 42 years old The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies another historical mystery. Not sure those are up your alley but they are mine.

thanks for the Adam Silvera suggestion

I thought about Ready Player Two but the reviews sucked. I might do In real life by Cory Doctorow which is a graphic novel

[dragonydreams]

Thanks for those recs, I'll check them out.

[cornerofmadness]

You're welcome I have something picked for almost everything

[dragonydreams]

I'll slowly try to do that, but I have stopped stressing about trying to fill every prompt. Even though I've read 83 books this year, I've only completed 35 Popsugar prompts. Although some can probably pull double duty, so I'll go back through and see what can check off multiple prompts. I know I just finished a book that takes place at Thanksgiving with a rabbit on the cover.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah I've learned not to stress about it. I was worse with the read one in all 50 states. That got too crazy so now I do what I can and don't worry about the rest. It's easy to go overboard.

that thanksgiving book definitely does double duty. The one arc I'm reading now could do double duty in Jan for unreliable narrator and asleep for a day (what a weird one but I'll probably jam that stephen king story about all the women falling asleep in for this...in graphic novel form as I read book one and wasn't that impressed)

[under_the_silk_tree]

For a book about K-pop, I found and really enjoyed XOXO by Axie Oh. Unfortunately, not a mystery but it was enjoyable.

Magical Realism: The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova

For horror by BIPOC: Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Book with an unreliable narrator: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

I'm sorry things are a bit rough right now. Hopefully you will get your energy back soon.

[cornerofmadness]

I wanted to read Zoraida Cordova's book. XOXO came up on my search, I'll have to look at the library.

LaValle is good I have one i have to finish for the publisher The reformatory by tananarive due which is SO big, too big.

and thanks