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yourlibrarian posting in

everykindofcraft

Some recent necklaces, a large one given the stone chunks, and a smaller one made for my partner (inspired by a Veronica Mars rewatch where it seemed virtually every male character wore some variation on this). ( Read more... )

iamrman posting in

scans_daily

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Pencils: Tom Lyle

Inks: Bob Smith

The KGBeast must break Robin!

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marycatelli posting in

books

The Proving Trail by Louis L'Amour

The young narrator of this tale leaves his job herding cattle to find his father, and learns that his father was murdered after a night of successful gambling.
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rachelmanija

Seven teenagers get trapped in their high school during a blizzard when they miss the bus that evacuated the rest of the school.

This was easily the worst book I've read all year, and I've read some doozies. I read it because I'd bought a copy for the shop for the niche of "children's/younger YA survival books for kids who've already read all of Gary Paulson and "I Survived."" I am going to return it to the publisher (Scholastic, which should be ashamed of itself) forthwith, because it is AWFUL.

Why is this book so bad?

1. It's incredibly misogynist. The narrator, Scotty Weems, is constantly thinking of girls in a gross, slimy, objectifying way.

The two girl characters, who get trapped in the high school along with five boys, never do anything useful. One's entire personality is "hot" and every time she's mentioned, it's with a gross leering description of her body. The other girl's entire personality is "hot girl's friend."

2. The characters have exactly one characteristic each, and even that one often gets forgotten, to the extent that I kept mixing up "normal boy" with "mechanically inclined boy." The others are "dangerous boy" and "weird boy." The latter gets downgraded to "not actually weird, just funny" (as in makes one supposedly humorous comment once.) We get no insight into them, their backstories, their home lives, etc, because none of them ever really talk to each other about anything interesting despite being trapped together for a week!

3. SO MANY gross descriptions of pimples, peeing, and pooping.

4. The book is boring. No one does anything interesting on-page until the second to last chapter, when it FINALLY occurs to Scotty to make snowshoes. Most of the book is Scotty's inner monologue about pimples, pooping, peeing, and hot girls. The kids barely interact!

5. The kids keep saying that help won't come because no one even knows they're missing, but that makes no sense. Every single one of them was supposed to get picked up. It's never explained why SEVEN DIFFERENT FAMILIES wouldn't notice that their kids never came home.

6. The incredibly contrived scene where Best Friend Girl comes staggering in screaming and disheveled, repeating, "Les, Les!" This is the name of Dangerous Boy. One of Indistinguishable Boys assumes Les sexually assaulted her and runs out and attacks Les. Best Friend Girl recovers enough to explain that she went to a room and it was dark and cold and she got lost, and she was trying to say there was LESS light and heat there. Because that's what you'd naturally gasp out when freaking out, instead of, say, "Dark! Cold!"

I feel like the existence of this scene in a PUBLISHED BOOK lowered the collective intelligence of the universe by at least half a point.

7. No interesting use is made of the school setting. The kids open their own lockers to get extra clothes and snacks, find pudding and canned peaches in the cafeteria, and spend the rest of the time silently huddled in classrooms, occasionally checking their useless cellphones that don't have any signal. Toward the end, they start a fire, and then, OFF-PAGE, construct a snowmobile (!).

Things they don't do: Break into other kids' lockers in the hope of finding useful stuff. Attempt to cook the cafeteria food. Search the library for survival tips. Get mats from the gym so they're not sleeping on freezing floors. Search classrooms and the teacher's lounge for useful stuff. Have a pick-up ball game to keep warm. Find ways of entertaining themselves without cell phones. HAVE GETTING TO KNOW YOU CONVERSATIONS - WHAT IS THE POINT OF DOING THE BREAKFAST CLUB WITHOUT THIS?

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Truly terrible.

ETA: I just discovered that it went out of print soon after I purchased it (GOOD) and so is not returnable (DAMMIT).

sovay

My poem "The Burnt Layer" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It's the one with the sky axe and α Draconis: stone-time, star-time. It's been looking for a home for a while and I am very glad to have it bedded here.

As the currently compiling issue is still looking for more fiction: story-writing people of my acquaintance, please send it in! The website remains temporary, the 'zine remains its black-and-white, saddle-stapled, nearly forty-year-old self. There's nothing like it out there in any of the fields.

I am off to the doctor's, which is a lot less the kind of journey I enjoy making.

Current Music: Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane, "Burial Blessing"

smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/08/podcast-679-your-transcript-is-here/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=150275

The transcript for Podcast 678. The Osmanification of Fiction Covers with Kayleigh Donaldson has been posted!

This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.

❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast →

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/08/podcast-679-your-transcript-is-here/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=150275

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/08/books-by-holly-black-tessa-bailey-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=150259

Promise Me Sunshine

RECOMMENDED: Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is $1.99! Fingers crossed this isn’t a leftover KDD from yesterday. I loved this book and it was my first Bastone. It’s on my list for the best releases of 2025.

Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of… a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.

Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Book of Night

RECOMMENDED: Book of Night by Holly Black is $2.99! This was one of our Best Reviews of 2022 and Carrie gave it a B+:

Fans of Holly Black’s Young Adult books may have to reset their expectations. However, I really loved this gritty, horrifying, magical novel. I just hope there is a sequel!

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus

In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Unfortunately Yours

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey is $1.99! This is book two in the A Vine Mess series. It’s the classic case of “I need to be married to access my trust fund!” Normally it’s the hero in this scenario, but this time it’s the heroine.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey is back in Napa Valley with this hilarious rom-com about a down-on-her-luck heiress who suggests a mutually beneficial marriage of convenience to a man she can’t stand… only to discover there’s a fine line between love and hate.

After losing her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to lick her wounds. A few months later, she’s sufficiently drowned her sorrows in cabernet and she’s ready to get back on her feet. She just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she marry before she can have the money. And well, dumped, remember?

But Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him—and kiss him, in equal measure.

August Cates may own a vineyard, but he doesn’t know jack about making wine. He’s determined to do his late best friend proud, no matter what it takes. Except his tasting room is empty, his wine is disgusting (seriously, he once saw someone gag), and his buddy’s legacy is circling the drain. No bank will give him the loan he needs to turn the business around… and then the gorgeous, feisty heiress knocks on his door.

Natalie has haunted August’s dreams since the moment they met, but their sizzling chemistry immediately morphed into simmering insults. Now, a quickie marriage could help them both. A sham wedding, a few weeks living under the same roof, and then they can go their separate ways—assuming they make it out alive. How hard could it be?

There’s just one thing they didn’t account for: their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Mistakes Were Made

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner is $1.99! This is a contemporary lesbian romance with an age gap. We’ve mentioned this on Hide Your Wallet, though haven’t written a formal review.

From the critically acclaimed author of Something to Talk About comes Meryl Wilsner’s Mistakes Were Made, a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom.

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they’d met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin’s better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.

What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/08/books-by-holly-black-tessa-bailey-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=150259

oursin

In my post about manners yesterday, conuly brought up in the comments a couple of posts to Ask A Manager from An Awful Young Man, who, on the evidence given, probably knows all the intricacies of cutlery and which way to pass the port, but is unfit for release into general society:

First post:

I was travelling home on a packed train with my bike. Suddently, I was approached by a lady who asked me, rather rudely, to give my seat to a man, her father, who was travelling with her. Since I was sitting on a regular seat (not a seat designated for disabled passangers) and had to read some materials to prepare for my interview, I ignored her. Unfortunately, when I was getting off the train, I accidentally moved my bike in a way that it caught and left dirty stains on her coat. I did not think much of this till the next day when I ran into the same woman and one of directors in the lift in my office building. It transpired that she is the CEO’s wife. She said nothing and did not acknowledge me, but it was very clear to me that she recognised me.

He did not get the job and thinks Spiteful Bitch put the kibosh on. Commentators have a lovely time handing him his head.

Second post:

I wish I had been told the receptionist/janitor/security guard story by career services at my university, which is one of those prestigious English ones. (Note from Alison: This is a reference to advice that you should be polite to receptionists/janitors/security guards when interviewing.) We get a lot of tips about how to write our resume and cover letter and how we should conduct ourselves during interviews, but not this type of real life recommendation.

'I was raised by wolves before they threw me out of the pack for antisocial behaviour and somehow I got into Oxbridge'.

But, my dearios, is this not a positively archetypal morality tale? At least one of the commenters pointed out its resemblance to Folktale Motif of Young Man on Quest who Fails to Help Old Woman, Bad Luck Eventuates/His Despised Younger Brother Does Help Her, Go Him, Wealth and Princess Are His Lot.

So there's that one.

It could also make a 'Sliding Doors' tale where the different outcomes of doing the wrong and right thing change destiny.

Or maybe he's condemned to repeat that journey and interview over and over again, Groundhog Day style, until he Learns His Lesson.

Or, maybe this is one of those novels that takes An Incident and does it from different viewpoints and that while to Mr I Am The Main Character here, this is all terribly important, there are other people who are going about their lives and barely noticing him unless they have to, and even then they have their own concerns.

sabotabby

Hey, it's a new Wizards & Spaceships episode! In "The Science Bros Answer Your Science Questions Part 1," you can find out what happens if you jump out of a spaceship* and other pressing sci-fi and fantasy questions.

* Don't.

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

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xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3129/

The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry.

https://xkcd.com/3129/

snopes_feed

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ai-ice-unauthorized-immigrants/

ICE released plans in August 2025 to buy a license for iris-scanning, biometric technology that can identify individuals from 10 to 15 inches away.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ai-ice-unauthorized-immigrants/

lydamorehouse

I lost two days.

Not exactly, but I was starting to feel sick on Wednesday and went down for the count. I just slept. I woke up now and again to eat, drink some water, take meds, and go back to sleep. It was insane. I told

naomikritzer that I felt a little like Murderbot just doing a complete hard reboot. I woke up some time last night to get the status update that I had returned to 40% operational, and then woke up at 80%.

Crazy.

Now, I'm trying to catch up a little on WorldCON. I'm listening to the Virtual presentaion "Food in Fantasy" which has an all Nigerian author panel (Presenter(s): Amadin Ogbewe, Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, Uchechukwu Nwaka), which is really fascinating. I just learned that there is a supersition that if you pick money off the ground you could turn into a yam. Apparently, this was something that really freaked out one of the panelists when he was younger. I would love to learn more about this, but I will say that Google is becoming pretty useless thanks to AI. I also just learned that, in Nigeria, if you accept food in a dream it can transport you to another place. They are now talking about how you translate certain foods specific to Nigera for non-African readers, which is a good question because there's something to be said for both trying to explain it or just letting it be there. Ogbewe just suggested something I really like, which is to not over explain, but to let the food exist as is, normalize it.

I am of two minds. When I write about foods that are unusual in the West, particularly when I'm writing fanfic, I do like to take a moment to sort of give a sense impression of it. Like, what it smells like, taste, and texture. But, it is true that if you explain something too much, it can knock a reader out of the story and focus on something that isn't what the story is actually about.

Anyway, I'm back.

I hope at all of you at Seattle WorldCON are having a great time!

iamrman posting in

scans_daily

Writer: Dennis O’Neil

Pencils and inks: Ric Estrada

Ben has been poisoned by a toxin unknown in the West, so Richard Dragon must go up against the League of Assassins to find a cure.

( Read more... )

rolanni

What went before ONE: M'sieur Rookie critiques the hair taming.

What went before TWO: Just gettin' done for the day. I am pleased that the WIP has a definite shape. There are holes, but now I can see where they are.

Nothing planned for tomorrow, except sticking with the WIP.

Everybody stay safe; I'll see you tomorrow.

Friday. Sunny and gonna be warm, only it's not yet, so I've opened the windows to get some air moving around the house.

Trooper has had his gravy-and-meds and is currently chowing down on Fancy Feast cod, sole, and shrimp.

My breakfast was a peach cut up into plain yogurt. Kettle's on for my second mug of tea. Lunch is looking like The Last Yam.

Today is for writing and I'm ready to go in my Childless Cat Lady tshirt.

I do have a letter to write and a phone call to make -- oh! Whoever mentioned "Nextdoor"? Thank you! I downloaded it this morning. The feed is a MESS, but I found one post of interest -- a cleaner in the area who is accepting clients, so I'll be calling her.

Otherwise, as previously mentioned -- writing, one's duty to the cats, a short walk, and, oh, how about writing?

Friday brought me a surprise video from Lake Wesserunsett on July 31 2019. "See the fish?"

https://sharonleewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/VID_20190731_103823251.mp4

What's Friday bringing to you?