Salon post: February 15

[jenett]

Good morning!

Topic of the week
Stuff you're enjoying right now, whatever that is.

What I've been up to
Doing all sorts of catchup stuff at home, whee! (And a few enjoyable social outings.)


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Comments

[jenett]

I just finished another rewatch of the Agatha Christie Poirot series, and I'm in the middle of a reread of the Rivers of London series (though a bit behind the Metafilter discussions of them, and sort of trying to catch up.)

More generally, I'm enjoying getting my house in order, both physically and online, though I've got a bit more to do before going back to work on Tuesday. (Ok, rather a lot more to do, but in manageable chunks.)

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm doing a The Dragonbone Chair re-read/listen, but slowly because I'm trying to do a 'Yena Reads the DBC' (and hopefully the other two as well) series of posts. They make me slow down and really absorb what I'm getting, which is good because I found out a couple of weeks ago that there's new canon in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn that I missed hearing about.

For entertainment without thought/work, I jist finished listening to Dune and have started on Dune Messiah, because they're wonderful (and terrible) old friends.

[cjsmith]

I never got through The Dragonbone Chair (apologies for lack of formatting - typing on phone, feeling lazy). Would you feel like telling me what it is you like about it or what makes it compelling to you? I love some of his other work so I feel like I should make another effort with this one!

[ilyena_sylph]

Oh I can babble about MS&T for days, sure!

I definitely understand why you might have bounced off it, though, Simon is so damned difficult to like at first. In it for Simon, I was Not at first.

I loved the very... Merovingian feel of it, along with the sheer presence of Green Angel Tower the Sithi tower in the heart of a human keep, the obviously intricate worldbuilding I could taste from like the first half of chapter 1 -- and then there was Morgenes, with his blatant physics-defying wizardry and I wanted to know how the hell that jived with the obviously Christian-allegory of the High King's religion.

And then in chap 2 there was that Sithi-whisper into Simon's ears from thousands of miles away and my entire nerves jangled with 'OMG Gimme'.

Then there were blatant tensions and troubles between the two Princes Royal, and a mystery about who Simon was, and So Many Cultures to dive into. And in one of the history lessons suddenly there were humans who had sided with the Sithi against other humans, and "the Erl-king's son" who it was better "not to speak of at all" and he had the hook in my mouth deep enough that even before I met Binabik (gdi I can never spell his full fucking name) I knew it didn't matter how much Simon annoyed me I was never gonna put these down.

Later in, there were the Qanuc-folk, with their Huntress and Herdsman deities and their fascinating magics all their own, with companion-wolves. And Jiriki, my Utterly Beloved Sithi-prince who is So Fucking Pissed Off about owing a life-debt to a human, and his Beyond Beloved sister Aditu who deserves her own goddamned book, and the entirety of the magic and ways of the Sithi. When I first read these, I'd never run into even the idea of elves that weren't at least half-based in Irish/English myth. These were based in vaguely-Japanese, interacting with a medieval vaguely-Europe, and I loved it madly. Still do.

Also the reveal at the end of Green Angel Tower left me literally breathless and feeling like I'd been clubbed like a seal for A While, which is an achievement not that many books manage. I vividly remember my utter shock, and even though I know it now I'm still looking forward to the experience again.

[swingandswirl]

siderea linked me to this amazing post about Jeremy Dutcher, a First Nations composer and singer who's one of the last hundred (!!!) speakers of the Wolastoqey language. His album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, sung entirely in Wolastoquey and with samples from century-old recordings of tribe elders singing the songs, won the Polaris prize this year and is 100% worth stopping whatever you're doing right now and running to purchase/stream because it is just that gorgeous.

I also just finished Roshani Choksi's excellent duology, The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes. It's so nice to read fantasy that isn't set in a whitewashed medieval Europe with magic pastede on yey. Bonus: lush, lyrical writing, brilliant, complex female characters, and two really cool stories that draw from Hindu mythology.

[cjsmith]

Oooo, I love thinking of languages being kept alive... but a hundred speakers? Wow. :/

[jazzyjj]

More from me later, but I'm currently trying to stay warm. Not sick or anything, although if this cold, drafty stuff keeps up I might get sick and I don't wanna do that. But I have long pants on, plus a T-shirt and sweatshirt. Just heated up some lunch, and I'm listening to a crackling fireplace on my Amazon Echo. Not exactly warming the place but it is nice to listen to.

[monksandbones]

Obviously I'm late to the party on this, but I'm watching Broadchurch (for once Canadian netflix has something worth watching on it...) and enjoying it so far.

I've also just devoured Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart (2015) in under two days, so I think it's safe to say I enjoyed it!

[cjsmith]

Enjoying the fact there are only eight work days until I’m out. Enjoying having some hope for what my future might hold.

Enjoying, though not without some sorrow, being able to give support to friends who are in tough situations. Getting to know them better as I see how they are shaped by the difficulties. Respecting them more as I see how they do their level best to treat everyone else as well as they can.

Enjoying home cooked food. I suck at this but have had help recently, and I have maybe fifty meals in the freezer, all of them delightful.

Enjoying learning how to navigate Goodreads and learning about lots of nifty books and authors that are new to me.

[wohali]

Hot baths.

Pain medication.

Naps with my cat.

[ckd]

Time in the Boston area with friends. Being at Boskone.

[cjsmith]

♥

I haven’t been to Boskone in a million years but it was my first con...

[jazzyjj]

Okay, now I am in a warmer place, a.k.a., my parents' 2-flat. So here's what I've been up to.





First off, one of the reasons I came here to my parents' place is that a sister of mine just got an iPhone. She is also a screen reader user, and she and my father phoned me yesterday morning to ask if I'd be so kind as to help out since I was going to be here anyway. Please see next sentence. Said sister and I are getting our blood drawn tomorrow morning, in preparation for our nephrology follow-up in a couple weeks.





But I've already started working with my sister on her iPhone. This is brand-new territory for her, so it'll take awhile. Combine that with the fact that her past computer training elsewhere was less than satisfactory. But she'll catch on. We just discovered something that I never knew about my iPhone, but I found the answer on an Apple-related site which I frequent.





My neighbor across the hall and I are getting our cooking business going, and everybody has been nothing but supportive and encouraging. I've had some of his stuff, and he's a great cook.

[eseme]

I loved the anime Restaurant to Another World, which is a delightful show. It is about an eatery in our real world which is magically connected to another world, every Saturday. In the magical world, door appear every Day of Satur which are all the front door of this restaurant. Denizens of this other world all come to eat and each has a different favorite dish.

It is sweet, hopeful, kind, and the food all looks excellent.

[mrissa]

Last night the Indigo Girls played a concert with the Minnesota Orchestra, and it was just lovely, and my friend Sam was in the viola section looking like he was about to explode with joy.

[qos]

I am surprised to find myself swept up in Salman Rushdie's memoir "Joseph Anton," which was his code name during his years in hiding after the fatwa was issued against him. I haven't read any of his other books, and now I'm not quite sure how this got on my radar, but I was hooked as soon as I started reading the sample.

Rushdie goes back to explore his family roots, his experiences as a young Indian man going to boarding school in England, and the excruciatingly show process of finding his voice as a writer, and his personal relationships, building an important context for everything that changed when he and his family had to go into hiding. He also talks about his long-time fascination with religion, even though he was an atheist, and about the germination of the ideas which became "The Satanic Verses."

I love getting swept up in books, and it's even more satisfying when it happens so unexpectedly.