susanreads | Network

Couldn't they possibly have, perhaps and please, cast actors who don't look so goddamn alike for Steve & Bucky, I'm sorry, I mean Scott & Kip?

If they shave or the other one of them gets slightly more facial hair, I've not even the slightest hope here. In the sex scenes, it's like whatever, if you wanted me to know who is who, you'd light it better.

Put a shirt on. Why do you have identical torsos, one of you is a professional athlete and the other one works two jobs.

rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent.

For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.

Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.

I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.

If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.

On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Title: A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1)
Author: Arkady Martine
Narrator: Amy Landon
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, fiction

I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent.

For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.

Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.

I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.

If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.

On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.

rocky41_7 posting in

books

hannah

What's getting to me about forgetting my headphones and MP3 player at my client's place more than having forgotten them is that my client sent me a text message about it. The forgetfulness is its own issue; that I didn't get a phone call about it has me absolutely baffled. She's a good few decades older than I am, and the messages she sent are iMessages that require internet access, not what I'd call "plain texts" that don't. So there's a good chance I wouldn't have seen it after I left the apartment's wifi range and got back to my place.

A direct phone call would've been much easier. I'll head over tomorrow and get it then, so it's less of a problem and more of an inconvenience, and it's still got me baffled she didn't simply call.

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: nothing now

musesfool

Over the past few days, I finally watched the most recent season of Only Murders in the Building and I enjoyed it tremendously. I feel like I laughed a lot more than I did last season. The thing that is so great about this show, other than all the other things that are great about it, is that the cast is so stacked that you can't play the "most famous guest star is the murderer" game. I mean, this season alone, we had ( spoilers )

In other news, we are - and possibly you are too - supposed to be getting a big winter storm this weekend so I'm thinking about baking plans. I will definitely post if I make something good. *g*

*

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel

sovay

My poem "Northern Comfort" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It was written out of my discovery over the last few years of the slaveholding history of Massachusetts literally under my feet and my more recent anger at the murderously terrified fragility of the current administration. Half my family turns out to be wound into these vanguards of American colonialism and you know what I don't waste my time doing? Pretending I was ever supposed to have been so bullied for it by the other, barely out of living memory immigrated half of my family that the only justified course of action is to demonize them to death. Or even just pretending that one side or the other doesn't exist. It exhausts me to try to transpose myself into thought processes so obsessed with guilt and control. At this point I am moving past hundred-year tides and into glaciers.

I cannot promise at this stage to do anything more than admire them, but

thisbluespirit made me a pair of personalized bingo cards.

( These sisters waiting to wear their own clothes. )

Having entirely missed the existence of Winteractive these past three years, I can see that I will have to visit the Kraken Crossing before the end of March. In even more belated fashion, I have managed to go more than thirty years without seeing the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice partly because nearly everyone I knew in high school was fainting over it and my reactions to most expressions of romance at that time could be described as allergic and bemused, but this interview with Colin Firth has gone a long way toward convincing me that when my brain has reverted to media capability, it too should go on the list.

Current Music: Dry Cleaning, "I Need You"

olivermoss

Laptops in a coffeeshop... like it's ten years ago or something. This place has been around in Portland forever, but I hadn't actually gone until recently. It really feels like stepping back in time, sometimes. The amount of people with earbuds in having phone conversations sometimes is nutty. At least, I hope it's phone conversations with people and not with AI.

thistleingrey

While looking at hood patterns, I found a free-to-use DROPS pattern (Jan 2025) on which another designer seems to've based a mystery knit-along, fall 2025. Making a pattern tougher to knit does not constitute an individual contribution worth charging money for. I've decided not to link.

Pattern design generally, or sometimes "design," has become a rather crowded space in the video-influencer micro-era. Here's a random video in which someone gives the spotlight to free patterns that bear close resemblance to 15 PetiteKnit patterns.

The hood search and current events have reminded me, however---there is one hat pattern that hasn't been awful to wear. I knitted it for my uncle almost 10 years ago, before my last visit, and since he and I were not so different in size (I'm taller, he had heavier bones), I tried it on while modifying the pattern to fit him despite thinner yarn. I bet I could make myself one. Not the same silhouette as the ice-melting toques people are promoting, which evoke a specific moment, but more practical for my head shape.

loganberrybunny

Public

356/365: Cottages, Wyre Hill, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Another day with basically nothing of consequence to report, so have a photo of some restored (some years back) cottages on Wyre Hill, a little outside Bewdley town centre. I don't know anything to speak of about the exact dates or original inhabitants, and I've never been inside. Still, they do the job of giving me a reasonably non-boring photo for tonight! :P

Current Mood: listless

disneydream06

Jan. 22nd...

A Courtroom Artist Was

Arrested Today For An

Unknown Reason...

Details Are Sketchy.

slacktivist_feed

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2026/01/22/and-well-go-sweeping-through-the-city/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72745

The government is doing terrible things in the Twin Cities. The people of the Twin Cities are doing beautiful things without and despite the government.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2026/01/22/and-well-go-sweeping-through-the-city/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72745

kaberett

Saw the Child! Was given a Very Important Solar System Biscuit.
Successfully slogged through a Whole Entire Exercise Routine, thanks be to company, and only tried to fall over for balance reasons rather than presyncope reasons. The Socks Continue Good. (We shall leave aside the part where my watch firmly told me I should start winding down for bed right before I began it...)
A has indulged me to the tune of staying up late (post-wiggles and once we have finished our takeaway, which we have) so that the bread I did not manage to bake earlier in the day will be Ready To Be My Breakfast.
Brain was willing to put down sudoku and actually read some book today! I am a bit closer to finishing a reread and embarking on the new thing!
It feels like I might actually be able to fall asleep in reasonable time today. Goodnight. <3

cosmolinguist

I finally got around to watching the gay hockey show.

Highlights from my social media thread:

First impression is how nice it is to hear some people who talk normal! Aww, some Canadian raising! When I write smut about gay linguists north of the 49th parallel, I'm gonna call it Canadian Raising.

Okay yes it's nice to see some butts and clavicles and forearms and all that, but also this is just making me miss my BlackBerry.

I watched this with a friend who'd been told that stuff doesn't start happening until episode 4. So by the end of episode 1 he was like "What the fuck happens in episode 4?! What is my friends threshold for stuff happening?! Because this is my threshold!" I replied: "This is more stuff than happened to me in like the first thirtysome years of my entire life."

omg why has being that awkward never gotten me that...result [I relate to Kip a worrying amount] Why isn't someone else the one saying "can I be too intense for a bit" to me for a change?

Yeah it's hard when you can't be out. You can't even like go fuckin... art shopping or whatever. It gets everywhere, after a while. This is what homophobes don't get: they think gayness can just be hidden like evangelical hypocrites hide it, just a behavior that stays dark and shameful. They don't know what it's like when someone makes you light up and you can't put a bushel basket over that.

Do they get a gay sports bar?? I want a gay sports bar!

I want a Canadian boyfriend with a cottage!

I miss loons.

We watched the whole thing and it's exhausting. So many big feelings!

Also I read a Margaret Killjoy thread that made me cry (content notes: ICE, Minneapolis). But also laugh. Especially this bit

Another person put it: "we're Minnesotans. We're excited to get out our real winter gear out of the box for the year."

Because I can absolutely hear this in my dad's voice.

I kinda wish I could have a day off for the strike tomorrow, but instead I'm gonna have a particularly stressful day at work! And then get a train back to Manchester! Bleh. I am donating money to various things -- here's another collection of links -- and I will be following on social media and trying to support my friends as much as I can from a distance. But I feel really weird being expected to have a normal day.

dhampyresa

Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat, by Julian Walker, Matthew Remski & Derek Beres

The central idea of this book is that the underlying principles of New Age philosophy and consipracy theories are very similar: Karma = "nothing happens by accident"; Illusion = "nothing is at it seems" and Interdependance = "everything is connected". An interesting and well-argued read.

I read this book early in 2025, at roughly the same time as The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care, by Rina Raphael (it was fine) so I'm not sure which of the two -- or even the Decoding the Gurus podcast I was bingeing at the time -- had this additional tidbit: part of the appeal of alternative medicine is the personalised aspect of it. You're not special, getting the same vaccine as everyone else, but this homeopathy is tailored to you specifically/this diet aligns with your astrological chart/etc.

rmc28

Heated Rivalry is on this year's Canada Reads longlist.

olivermoss

( Sorry political screaming before I go somewhere without internet for a while to get work done )

seleneheart

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Blurb:

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

This is the January read for the

bookclub_dw, so I'll save my thoughts for the discussion post over there.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Bruce Springsteen - She's the One

firecat

*sigh* I was just reminded that Peet’s Coffee is owned by a larger corporation now (has been for some time). I‘d rather support a smaller company. If you make coffee from ground beans at home, what is your go-to source? Bonus for fair trade and all those other green, good-citizen buzzwords.

wychwood

( 163. At the Feet of the Sun - Victoria Goddard ) These books are just a delight; I will definitely be reading more Goddard.

( 164. Murder in the Marginalia - Julie Ecker ) I feel a bit mean about it, given that I got this for free, but I think ultimately this just isn't my genre.

( 165. The Big Four - Agatha Christie ) Christie really needed to stay away from the Dramatic Spy Plots.

( 166. Peace Company, 168. These Green Foreign Hills, and 170. The Mountain Walks - Roland J Green ) If you like non-ultra-right-wing milSF you can definitely do worse than these books!

( 167. Hemlock & Silver - T Kingfisher ) This was probably one of the more disappointing Kingfishers for me, sadly. But fortunately I bought it on a 99p deal and not full price!

( 169. The Frangipani Tree Mystery and 171. The Betel Nut Tree Mystery - Ovidia Yu ) I'm enjoying this series! Will have to read more of them.

( 172. Odds Against - Dick Francis ) Just as fun as I was hoping, based on his rep!

( 173. Starcruiser Shenandoah: Squadron Alert - Roland J Green ) I'm sad that I wasn't as into this as the Peace Company, but I fully intend to finish my series re-read.

( 174. Unnatural Magic - C M Waggoner ) This is very different from the other Waggoner I've read; not bad, but I don't know that I would have gone for a second if I'd read this one first.

( 175. Provenance - Ann Leckie ) A delightful heist adventure; I don't need a sequel to this, but I like to think that Tic and Garal and Ingray and Taucris are all off living their best lives and hanging out a lot.

( 176. The Coming-of-Age of the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer ) A decent addition to the series, but not particularly exciting.

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Book review: A Memory Called Empire

Book review: A Memory Called Empire

Recent Reading: A Memory Called Empire

Thursday night.

the grand facade so soon will burn

My dream house is a negative space of rock

Dragonfly Cafe

hoods all alike

Cottages

Isn't It Punny.....

And we’ll go sweeping through the city

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Book Bingo: G4 | From Your TBR | The Spellshop

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