Jess-Icabod Zellers

Boxes also work on bobcats

Winning the news

We locked in our set list last night; this will--intentionally--be our hardest-rocking show to date

this mfer said I.

time for bed.

this rang I bell. When I went to add it to my TBR spreadsheet, it was already there.

I love the intimacy of reading in print. Just me and the author's words. No intermediaries.

But when the right voice actor reads the right book, it becomes something magical.

it wasn't for me for a long time. I had to work up to it, starting with nonfiction. Eventually I trained my brain to focus and process the words and now I love it.

from librarian / current editor here to reassure you that audiobook reading is reading. Because I can listen while walking the dog or chopping vegetables, I'm able to read far more books.

Why are you being contemptuous? It's reasonable to ask for a description. The people with vision problems don't know what the image shows.

I got it from Agnes.

I read David James Duncan in 2008 (that is to say: recently) and enjoyed it. The River Why.

I read the Murakami running book in 2017 (very recently) and enjoyed it, though gosh, he's so strange. You don't get warm fuzzies from him.

You should sign up for the 5k.

is this where I admit I still have to look up how plural possessives work with apostrophes or do I keep that to myself

I'm not saying I'm proud of this. I am simply observing the way things are.

she shakes her hips like she thinks she's Shakira
That daring young woman on the big metal Lyra

I am pretty sure the studio owner invited me to this show because someone else dropped out and she was scrambling but that is fine, the clothes come off either way

oh hey I'm performing this Saturday! Lyra burlesque! Come watch me take my clothes off *while flying through the air*

normal person: i just want a place to hang out with my friends
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following

I haven't seen it. Looks weird to me too.

Top: bear is telling a scary story around a campfire “Then, suddenly - my PHONE RANG.” Pig replies “What’s scary about that?” Bottom: bear continues “They didn’t text me first to say they were gonna call.” Pig and hamster are horrified “GASP!”

terrifying

Even the title is cozy!

Ian Bedford did a fine job with the audio narration, for those who want to go the audiobook route.

Parker’s writing is always dark, in the sense that his characters make poor choices and people die, sometimes lots of them, but it’s always funny too. His writing is sharp and clever.

“She looked at me as though I’d been spelt wrong.” What a terrific line.

Our main character, a linguist, is in charge of forging the ancient texts that will be uncovered at the miraculous discovery of the site, scheduled for nine months hence. The king will murder him if he gets it wrong.

As usual with Parker, the genre is low fantasy. It’s a make believe world with make believe characters, but the setting could pass for preindustrial Earth. The local monarch has conscripted a group of scholars to create a convincing set of archaeological ruins.

Cover art for Making History, featuring a castle that, on close inspection, appears to be burning.

Book talk for October 6. What’s everyone reading?

K. J. Parker has been one of my top-tier, can’t-miss writers since 2009, back before anyone knew he was the pseudonym of Tom Holt. To no one’s surprise, I enjoyed his newest novella, Making History.

I was not aware of this!

There is a Weaverville in California, memorialized in Tom Waits's "Get Behind the Mule"

"Dusty trail from Atchison to Placerville
On the wreck of the Weaverville stage"

we'll see whose November vacation is crisper

taking the time to change the hyphen to an N-dash is completely unnecessary. It does not aid comprehension or enrich the meaning. That was not an inspired way to spend time and energy from my one wild precious life. And yet.

alas it is not