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Books for the new year

Posted on by Patrick
A photo of the books A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers and Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

I stopped by the pub­lic library to return a cou­ple over­due books, and since they were open[1]I was­n’t sure they would be, as it’s New Year’s Eve., I checked out the Staff Pick shelves. I found a cou­ple books to take home with me: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Cham­bers[2]A sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which I adored. and Net­tle & Bone by T. King­fish­er[3]I’ve nev­er read any­thing by her, but I’ve heard she’s very good..

What are you read­ing in the wan­ing hours of 2025 and the open­ing month of 2026?

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 I was­n’t sure they would be, as it’s New Year’s Eve.
↑2 A sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which I adored.
↑3 I’ve nev­er read any­thing by her, but I’ve heard she’s very good.

Arcs

Posted on by Patrick
Star trails -- arcs of light against a dark sky

I did­n’t catch any Gem­i­nids last night, but from about 9pm to 9:30pm and then again from 10:30pm to 1:30am I record­ed some of Earth­’s rotation.

(The lacu­na is because the cam­era bat­tery died and I did­n’t replace it for about an hour.)

Did Not Finish

Posted on by Patrick
The word "nope" on a red background

I love to read, but I don’t have a prob­lem aban­don­ing a book if it’s not doing it for me.

I found a book in the library’s sci­ence fic­tion sec­tion, a title I’d nev­er heard of by an author I’d nev­er heard of. I checked out the first cou­ple pages, I read the author’s bio—apparently the author’s “name” was a nom de plume for an award-win­ning writer of thrillers, try­ing their hand at SF. OK, I thought, I’ll try it. It’s the library, it’s not cost­ing me anything.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Did Not Fin­ish” →

Review: Horrorstör

Posted on by Patrick
The cover of Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix: it looks a lot like a room staged for an IKEA catalog, except for the creepy faces and hands in the photo frames on the wall

I picked up Grady Hen­drix’s 2014[1]I did­n’t real­ize it was over a decade old till I was about ¾ done read­ing it. nov­el Hor­rorstör because I’m a suck­er for a high con­cept. The cover—as shown above—looks an awful lot like an IKEA cat­a­log cov­er, show­ing how you might stage a room with IKEA fur­ni­ture. Then you look a lit­tle clos­er and see that there’s some­thing… off… about the pho­tos on the wall.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Review: Hor­rorstör” →

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 I did­n’t real­ize it was over a decade old till I was about ¾ done read­ing it.