forgot to hit the second “yes i really mean it” button to confirm my audiobook library loan renewal so it just returned a book i’m halfway through and now there’s a nine-week wait 😫
Thoughts tagged "reading"
Short thoughts, notes, links, and musings by Molly White. RSS 
i never realized that "getting lit", as in getting drunk, dates back at least to the 1930s
“You could have phoned him last night.”
“I could not. I got lit last night. This is the first job I’ve had in a month.”
“Got any expense money left?”
“Enough for a couple of days. I’ve learned self-control.”
“How drunk are you?”
“Hell, how do I know?”
Wolfe’s brow lifted. “Gentlemen?”
Farrell said, “Mike’s all right. Forget him. He’s all right.” Julius Adler the lawyer, about the build of a lead-pencil stub, looking like a necktie clerk except for his eyes and the way he was dressed, put in, “I would say yes. We realize that this is your house, Mr. Wolfe, and that Mr. Ayers is lit, but after all we don’t suppose that you invited us here to censor our private habits. You have something to say to us?”
(via The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, first published 1935)
This month's fiction: very gay, very outer space.
Highlights included Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove, The Alliance series by Elaine U. Cho, and Charlie Jane Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster.
@molly0xfff August reading wrap-up, reviewing the 16 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #augustreadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #scifibooks ♬ original sound - Molly White
The essay I mention in the video is "On the Joy of Building a Sci-Fi World with a Korean Inflection".
Reviewing the 19 books I read in July
Good reading month! Highlights were Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted Cup and more of the Murderbot series
@molly0xfff July reading wrap-up, reviewing the 19 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #julyreadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #murderbot #scifibooks ♬ original sound Molly White
I didn't realize both Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz had new books coming out, and they both look so good!
Automatic Noodle, Analee Newitz (publishing August 5)
This cozy near-future novella speaks to me as someone who watched our Brooklyn neighborhood’s restaurants take care of each other during covid lockdown, but Annalee Newitz’s new book will appeal to anyone who connects food with community. As San Francisco recovers from a devastating war, a band of recently reactivated robots take over a ghost kitchen to make the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the Bay—because even when you’re living through unprecedented times, you gotta eat.
Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders (publishing August 19)
Big queer Practical Magic vibes from Charlie Jane Anders’ new contemporary fantasy novel about Jamie, ostensibly a New England academic but also a witch teaching her mother Serena witchcraft from a three-hundred-year-old book. As with many mother/daughter tales involving magic spells, there’s a dark family history snaking around their bond, and it will take more powerful spellwork than Jamie has ever harnessed to save Serena from her darkness.
Both have DRM-free ebooks published via Tor Books.
as someone who likes to collect cool or new words, you would not believe my delight just now when i discovered my e-reader saves a list of all the words i look up while i’m reading
every time we get a spate of hot weather i remember i'm a discworld troll whose brain slows to a crawl above 70˚ or so
It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.– Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites
Reviewing the 14 books I read in June
So many good books this month, with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents and Martha Wells’ Artificial Condition leading the pack for fiction.
@molly0xfff June reading wrap-up, reviewing the 14 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #junereadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #parableofthetalents #murderbot #spaceopera #litrpg #newtanddemon ♬ original sound - Molly White
NYC, 1919: Perched on a towering pile of donated books, a librarian calls from a megaphone to request more book donations for American troops stationed in France. The American Library Association’s campaign sent up to 55,000 books each month to military camp libraries.
(via Library of Congress)