Just read through the new Rivers of London novella, featuring a new protagonist. I enjoyed it, but rushed through it too quickly and want to go back and reread. It's nice having an alternate view of the Folly and the timeline of magic history in general, and I wonder if he's going to set a story in France as well. (I know one of the shorts had a French character.)

I don't think it's fair to compare Tobias to Peter yet, as Peter's had multiple full novels to flesh out his character and Tobias has only had the one novella, so I'll say I'm interested in getting to know him a bit more. (And I like the fact that he asked his team to bring him snacks while he was waiting around at a job.) I do really like Vanessa, and I'm interested in the rivers that appear in the story.

Up because I can't get to sleep because my phone got snatched out of my hand while I was out walking the dog earlier this evening. I'm so mad and I also feel dumb that I was such an easy target, just a middle-aged chubby lady wandering with her nice puppy, you can take it right out of her hand.

I called him an asshole as he sprinted off, which was all the satisfaction I got, which is not any.

Grarrgh.

Just bought tickets for Endgame for this Saturday. Aaah! I'm seeing reviews that say it's really good and in a way I'm really excited about, and I can't wait!

We're watching my friend's beagle for a week and she has just now stopped snuffling around the house like a roly-poly roomba, making sure there are no spare crumbs on the floor. (There were lots, and she sucked them up.) She is allergic to nearly everything and on a very restrictive diet, which means she just gets extra-crafty about stealing things she's not supposed to have.

I just started The Five, by Hallie Rubenhall, about the women who were previously known to history only as the prostitutes that Jack the Ripper killed. Rubenhall explores their lives and how they got to Whitechapel, the fact that many of the women were likely not prostitutes, and in short shows them to be the people that they were and not merely bodies to serve as evidence in an exciting mystery.

Next up is the second book in the Raven Boys series.

I have to figure out when I'm going to see Captain Marvel this weekend. It may not happen because we've already made plans to go see a cat video fest at the Alamo on Saturday (my first time going to an Alamo, actually) and I have a lot of things scheduled for Sunday. Going to have to dodge spoilers.

Reading-wise, I just finished Tim Powers' book Alternate Routes, and enjoyed it a lot although it's using tropes he's played with before. I find them really fascinating so I always enjoy seeing other stories set in this universe of sorts that he's set up. I have another book by him waiting but I'm not sure whether to go straight to it or pick up something else.

Also, a very dear friend of mine has drawn a children's book (no text, just her illustrations) that comes out later this month. It's about the two lions of the NYC library going on a nighttime adventure through the city. I've just bought a copy for my niece and now I need to get one for myself!

I've read some of McGuire's October Daye books, and enjoyed them, although I wasn't hooked to the point of "omg must grab next book immediately." And I'm not in general a horror reader, so I won't be picking up those books of hers. But what I heard about Every Heart a Doorway sounded right up my alley, so I finally got it and read it last night.

The concept is lovely. What happens to all those portal fantasy children who find themselves stranded back in this world, where time may or may not have passed, where they come back with strange skills or weird hair or new proclivities? Well, perhaps a boarding school, run by a woman who knows exactly what they've been through because she has as well. I loved the idea of all these kids bumping against each other, trying to figure out what to do now that they don't live in a candyland or a magical fairyland where they were the King's Champion. There's a lot of nuance about the characters that's done in concise little bites.

I liked Nancy, the main character, and her particular portal world was interesting, with a focus on stillness and silence.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize the book was actually a novella, which means that I bumped up against what I experienced as really weird pacing and the book ended unexpectedly quickly. The main character arrives, the plot rockets off immediately, and before I knew it things were wrapping up. I'm a little uncertain about whether I'm interested in the other books, which seem to be both sequels and prequels. I don't know if I want to read an entire book about a character after I know how she got to be the way she was, and that she's already died an ignominious death.

So, I'm not sure. I will probably reread it with better expectations about the length. But I'm not sure if I'll be picking up the other books in the series.

I went to a Galentines Day workshop yesterday and made a small fused glass piece. After trying to think up something to make, I wound up settling for the classic: a random sort-of-abstract composition that I hope will turn into something pretty after it's been through the kiln. One friend was more ambitious and did a flower with sky and grasses. Another friend was really really ambitious, and made a vulva in honor of the holiday. I love my friends.

We had one teasing day of slightly warmish weather and now we're back down in the dumps with more snow due tomorrow. The cold may be part of why, after musing yesterday that his TMS may have actually started to take effect, my husband decided to be a surly jerk today. We don't really tend to do anything for Valentine's Day, so there are no overtones of "you ruined a holiday!" I just hate being around him when he's in this state.

Meanwhile, I have finally ordered the one John D. MacDonald book I've been wanting to read but never found in a used bookstore, namely The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything.

In other news, the dog has decided she's afraid of the floor again. I may have to trim her nails. But these fits always come on her randomly, and she may forget about it by tomorrow.

When I'm anxious, which is pretty common (bah), I frequently have the same type of dream. I'm in an airport trying to get to my gate. But I have to use the bathroom but if I do I'll miss my flight. Or I'm trying to run but instead I just keep walking leisurely. Or they have changed the gate to the other side of the airport.

This morning I woke up after the appearance of my second most common anxiety dream, which started showing up a few years ago. I'm trying to pack, to leave a room empty, or to fit everything I need into my suitcase, but there's always more stuff, or I bought too much and have to leave some behind, or my suitcase won't hold everything even though it should.

I've just gotten back in contact with my dad after many years, mostly because my sister had a baby and we figured that no matter what kind of giant dick he was, he should know. We started trying to contact him before my niece was born and a few weeks ago, (a month before my niece turns one) we finally succeeded. We exchanged a few messages and I'm not sure what happens now. He will possibly just disappear again. He lives on the other side of the planet and had dropped off the face of the earth even with his own family. We finally connected over WhatsApp for a few short messages, so of course I had a long dream about trying to empty a room with my mom and sister while he ignored us and showed his wife and kid where the horses were that they could ride, and where the canoes were for boating.

My subconscious is not particularly subtle. I woke up feeling like something that lives under a rock, and had to wander around doing my morning routine with My Brother, My Brother, and Me playing in my pocket to start feeling normal again after a while. Emotional hangovers are the worst.

I finished the book the other night. I did end up enjoying it, although possibly in ways I didn't expect. I also need a reread, as I'm pretty sure I missed some details.

For example, I was having trouble figuring out why Breq was supporting one of the two split leaders of the empire. I knew she was on a course of revenge but I was having trouble figuring out which of the two positions of Anaander Minaai she had decided to side with. Apparently at some point she deciphered which of the sides was responsible for the death of her Lieutenant, but I had trouble following all of it.

I also had come to know the book as one that did some subversive things with gender (subversive isn't the right word...unusual? Pointed?), which actually didn't really seem to be a particularly big part of the book for me. I didn't spend much time trying to parse out genders in the characters, and although I think at one point Seivarden Vendaai was indicated as male by another character, I promptly forgot it. It seemed like an interesting but ultimately minor piece of worldbuilding that I found interesting, but it didn't say anything much bigger than that to me, if it was supposed to.

I also have some problems with how opaque characters are - it's natural, because you're reading through the lens of an AI who has been suddenly cut off from her nearly omnipotent understanding when she's a ship full of her officers. (Locally omnipotent, I guess.) So watching Breq keep protecting Vendaai kind of remained a mystery to me. Was it simply because she had once been one of Breq's lieutenants? (Although as Breq keeps pointing out, never a favorite.)

For me the book is strongest in it's look at a totalitarian regime from both the inside and the outside (ancillary vs corpse soldier). You're experiencing it all from someone who is utterly inside the culture like a goldfish is in water, but sometimes she does run up against the hard edges of it and has to figure out how she feels about it. I wonder if the later two books are some sort of AI to fully individualized person kind of story, but it was interesting how much of a relief I felt when Breq gets taken aboard what will be her new ship, back into something closer to her old life. (Except her old life is killing people really well, and her new life is now going to be responsible for keeping half of a mad despot in check?)

ANYWAY. I really enjoyed it but I want to get the other two books under my belt and then do a reread and see if stuff I found nebulous clears up.

We're not getting any snow here as part of the dreaded polar vortex but we're definitely getting the cold. I was feeling vertigo-y and felt like I was on the edge of a sinus infection, so I took the day off and spent most of it asleep or in a hot shower. The dog is very upset because not only is she still on exercise restriction for a lot longer, but it's too cold out to even do a short walk around the block. She doesn't have booties and I worry about her feet getting frostbitten. Plus there are areas where people haven't shoveled their sidewalk and it's just ridges of ice.

We're sort of in the process of buying a used car. My mom is giving us a down-payment and as soon as that's here we'll pick up the car, a 2016 Honda HHR. We were going to keep our 11-year old Honda Fit as our second vehicle (and not let the dog inside the new car so that we don't replicate the eau d'Hound that permeates the Fit) but I'm wondering if we should just sell it and use the money to pay off some medical bills. Bemo's been having a lot of dental issues for the past year and they've gotten pricey. I'm not particularly excited to be getting a car payment again, even a small one. I've taken a hiatus from my Italian tutor because of the cost, even though I love studying the language. (Also I'm not a good language student and I'm scared I'm going to lose it all.)

Still reading my books on the gin craze and the history of brewing beer, but have added Ancillary Justice to the pile. I suspect I'm going to zip through it. I'm only a little ways in but it's so good so far.