I don't want to make any claims for stamina in case tomorrow when I have an appointment I can't leave the house, but for months it has reliably exhausted me to walk around my own neighborhood and after two days out and about I did spend most of this one curled up, but I also left the house in the midafternoon to acquire a plate of baba dip from Noor because I was jonesing for eggplant and later walked back out on a fish-oriented supermarket run in the thickening rain. I stayed an extra hour at my desk because Hestia was in full Llyan mode, swattily objecting when I ceased from petting her as she purred like a turbine underneath the mermaid lamp. The evening's bedmaking was similarly delayed by her commandeering of the clean laundry with her precise and possessively kneading small paws. It does feel like a change that I am not utterly wiped out by household chores. Now if my brain would just decide to rejoin the party. In that vague direction, I am continuing to enjoy Apple TV's Widow's Bay (2026–) which delighted me beyond measure this week not even by featuring a sea hag who explodes when spear-gunned into tide-flat brine—I treasured a Magic card along those lines—but by having shot a scene at Half Moon Beach in Gloucester. I recognized it from its boulders of Cape Ann granite: I have climbed over their tectonic jumble and dozed on them and been photographed on them by

spatch, the sticky basement rock of my local microcontinent. I am not used to fictitious islands confected out of coasts I know. It makes me want to visit them. In the meantime I read about the doused and sunken chain of the New England Seamounts.

Current Music: Pylon Reenactment Society, "Messenger"

lovelyangel

I’m embarrassed to say that I started reading Martha Well’s Queen Demon on April 3 – and then set it aside, resuming on April 17. From that point, I’d nibble at the book in 10-15 page bites on random evenings. At that rate, progress was slooooow. Sure, there were plenty of evenings when I didn’t touch the book. The lack of momentum was not because the book was bad – it was more a reflection of my lack of free time. I’m a little mortified to admit how long it took me to read 10 pages.

I did not finish the book until this morning. It took more than a month for me to finish a single book. I’ve reduced my tsundoku stack by one book. 😑

( Excuses, Below the Cut )

It’s good that I finished Queen Demon today, as tomorrow night I’m going to a book signing: Martha Wells - Platform Decay.

Future Murderbot and Rising World books are discussed in a Martha Wells Interview at Polygon (via

thewayne).

$radiantfracture: Small painting of Penguin book (Books post)$

radiantfracture

Hello! Do you have opinions on this year's Hugo nominees? I would enjoy hearing them -- not for any reason other than the sheer pleasure of thinking about books. Comment freely with your opinions, predictions, and recommendations.

The Backstory

sabotabby got me hooked on the Ancillary Review of Books' podcast A Meal of Thorns via her post on the MoT episode about Ready Player One, and I've been traipsing through the back catalogue.

Last year, host Jake Casella Brookins and frequent guest Roseanna Pendlebury hashed through the Hugo short lists book by book in great toothy detail. The episode was a sublime listening experience as I wandered through the wooded trails around Pkols / Mount Doug a few weeks ago, mostly because I agreed with almost everything they said. (At least about the books I'd read.)

(Last year I happened to do pretty well on Hugo reading. Without trying very hard, I read half the books -- 3/6 novels and 3/6 novellas. This year, not so much -- I've only read Amal El-Mohtar's novella The River Has Roots.)

(NB El-Mohtar's episode of MoT on The Traitor Baru Cormorant is also excellent.)

On precedent, I've been eagerly looking forward to the MoT Hugos episode this year, but so far they don't seem to have one planned.

Hence my rough approximation. Let me interview you about the Hugo noms you read and your takes thereon.

I guess I'll go first:

I liked The River Has Roots a lot. I'm shocked to discover it's El-Mohtar's first solo long-form fiction -- her voice has, to my ear, such assurance, both here and in This is How You Lose the Time War. She knows what she wants to do with this story and she does it, piece by piece. For such a small book, the story feels spacious. It's economical but doesn't feel rushed or compressed to me. I would have liked to know a little more about how she was imagining the phenomenon of grammar. I enjoyed the chicken.

Now you! (If you want.) -- Any Hugo short lister is fair game, whether I have read it or not.

§rf§

redbird

I went to the dentist this afternoon, and they did some uncomfortable things as part of creating a new/replacement crown for one of my teeth (which had cavities under the old crown). I currently have a temporary crown, and will be getting the permanent replacement in three weeks; it will be ready sooner, but that's the next available appointment.

I was pleased to see that my Lyft driver, the dentist, and the dental assistant were all masked when I first saw them. I told the driver it was nice to see other people masking, and I tipped extra because of it.

When I checked in, the receptionist told me there would be a $750 copay. I told her that I had been told that the crown was fully covered, and asked her to check. A few minutes later, she confirmed that I wouldn't have to pay anything. I do not understand dental insurance, including this dental insurance, which is an add-on to my Medicare Advantage plan; I would have paid the $750 if I had to, but I'm glad I don't.

I'd been planning to stop and visit some lilac bushes on the way home, but it was raining, which made that less appealing, so I didn't. I did stop at Lizzy's on the way home, and now have a total of five unlabeled pints of ice cream: three today, because a broken freezer meant I had to get the clerk to hand-scoop the ice cream, plus the two from Tosci's. However, I have blank sticky adhesive labels, which should make this easy.

senmut

Do It Again? [Podfic] (48 words) by blackglass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker
Additional Tags: Drabble, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming
Summary:

A podfic of Do It Again? by Merfilly.

"Leia asks a question."

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/05/06/dead-as-disco

If you are into Rhythm games or Beat em Ups I highly recommend checking out Dead as Disco. It is an arcade brawler with combat reminiscent of the Batman Arkham series except that all your punches and combos can sync to the beat.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/05/06/dead-as-disco

julian

My mom, who is now 86, has vascular dementia, as noted previously.

She's more "there" in the mornings, and is sometimes able to connect up and have actual conversations, though I admit, this is not often. Then once she starts getting tireder, she is just not rooted in reality, meanders verbally, and has some kind of rich inner life to which I am not privy, and which, when she's asked about, she is unable to explain. (Which is more curious to me because she was just in 2026 in the morning, you know? But it is what it is.) This does often lead to problems because she meanders off, physically, to obey the mysterious dictates of her soul, and can't/won't explain what she wants to do, and does *not* take well to re-direction. (Or, in the words of the medical establishment, is combative.)

She's also miserable and seems to have developed actual aphasia at this point -- that is, she has something specific she wants to say but says the wrong words. Which, sometimes is commentary on 2026, but is also sometimes commentary from her inner life, so even if we could understand it, it wouldn't make sense, but the frustration is the same either way, so sympathy is at least called for.

She does recognize me pretty consistently, which is good both for her sake and mine (because the first time I actually knew she didn't know it was me was Not Entertaining), but she also firmly has the idea her parents are still alive and she wants to visit them (in Lancaster, PA), which is... not so good. My dad is very bad at dealing with the latter, and keeps going, in essence, "No, they're dead," which is. Nowhere near the response you want, there.

Also, she has no sense of time, so she's like, "Let's go!" three minutes after we start a thing. Which is one thing if it's at home, but it's more of a problem if she's at, say, her 5 year old niece's birthday party. My brother and I did decode that it's also her telling us she's done with our visits and we should go away, though, so that was good.

And, she is still doing the "taking a walk and then getting lost and getting the police called on her," thing, which frankly by this point is infuriating because why the fuck won't my dad get inside locks for the house, or at least notice that she's leaving. ?!?!??? <-- my internal state.

Anyway, the reason I'm making this post is that she's getting a lot more unstable on her feet, and has fallen a few times lately, though has not, thankfully, broken anything, but she can't get back up again when she does fall. My dad has now, despite their previously having promised each other they would Never Leave Their House, made the decision that he's open to looking into assisted living/memory care facilities, hosanna. (They've had in-house helpers for a bit, but my mom keeps taking against them because they tell her what to do and she hates that, see above re: combative.)

He called me up (I having had warning from my brother) and was like, "Can we get her into an ambulance and have her taken somewhere this afternoon?" and I barely managed not to laugh at him. No, is the answer, no we can't. I said something about it not being feasible. (I mean, if she broke something it would be, but that is To Be Avoided because it would lead to the downslope, and while she is not exactly happy in her life, the "broken bone to pneumonia" pipeline is not the most efficient way of dying, pardon my distancing humor.)

But! I have now scheduled two tours, one for my brother (on Friday) and one for me on Monday, at two different local-to-my-parents places, and we'll go from there.

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/05/06/tattooine

The best Star Wars since it was acquired by The Rodent is very easy to define. On the movie side, Rogue One. I thought Solo had some hot shit in it, but I can understand if you didn't want to pull the bar down for that particular ride. Beyond that, the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, Andor, and now - just finishing its run - is Maul. It's actually that good. Some people like it even more than me, and I like it a lot.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/05/06/tattooine

smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/platform-decay-by-martha-wells/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172587

B+

Platform Decay

by Martha Wells
May 5, 2026 · Tor
Science Fiction/Fantasy

Amanda and I have discussed many times on the RT Rewind podcast episodes that reviewing a book that’s deep into an existing series is a fraught proposition. The potential for spoilers is significant, and the question of audience can be a puzzler, too. Am I writing for new readers who might enter the series with this book (TL;DR, don’t do that, you deserve the whole Murderbot series!) or am I addressing folks who already love the series and want to know how this book fits into the larger story arc?

In this case, it’s the latter. I know that most of y’all know about the series, and that it is one of my major comfort re-reads, especially for middle-of-the-night anxiety insomnia.

So here are a few non-spoilery things to know about the latest book in one of my favorite series.

It starts out slow and confusing.

The opening dropped me into the middle of a moderately tense moment with no understanding of what is happening, why, and where they are aside from ‘space, somewhere? What’s a torus?’ The development is deliberately slow in the initial chapters.

The cover copy is deliriously sparse, too:

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment of Martha Wells’ bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series.

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn’t know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for… eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

The sparseness works because the most you need to know is there’s a rescue mission, and Murderbot is really pissed off about it.

The story trajectory follows a slow acceleration until the plot is racing, kind of like a mammoth jet on a runway.

I was worried I didn’t like this book until I got to about chapter 5 or 6!

Me?! Not like a Murderbot book? WHAT THE HELL. IS MY BRAIN BROKEN.

Nah, the story is a bit of a tease, dropping pieces until I saw the full picture and had an “OH SHIT” realization of the stakes and the operation in progress. Then I couldn’t stop reading.

There are little moments that I had to re-read because I needed to experience their emotional significance a second (or third) time.

In fact, I started the book over the minute I finished it and have now read it twice. Well, no, twice and a half because I re-read even more while writing this review.

One of my favorite aspects to Murderbot’s character is how it remains surprised at its own capacity for generosity, observation, care, and creative lateral thinking, and gets SO ANNOYED when it notices said capacities. There’s a lot of that disgruntled kindness, and I definitely re-read those sections on repeat to savor my emotional reaction.

I highlighted a lot, too, and I will share one tiny clip:

(It’s weird how meal and sleep breaks fix a lot of the annoying things about humans.) (Maybe that’s how you restart an organic brain?)

Excuse me. I didn’t need to be called out like that.

Not spoiling is difficult.

The major themes of this story are how comprehensively a corporation with no fucks and much money can interfere with the lives of determined humans who are committed to helping one another get to safety:

…if they aren’t bothering to hide anymore, it basically meant whoever was in charge didn’t care about any kind of plausible deniability….

Sounds familiar, huh? As usual with this series, the exploration of the decay caused by unfettered power, wealth, and aggression is relevant and chilling and familiar. I think that’s part of what makes this series so reassuring for me: the only option is to keep trying to help produce a better outcome for everyone.

And the more Murderbot becomes emotionally stable and enters fair relationships with humans, other constructs, and bots, the more it learns how much power and leverage it has to better assist in creating those outcomes.

The other theme is about trust, and I won’t say more because there are way too many components to the theme and I really don’t want to do anything but encourage you to read through the first slightly confusing chapters to the point where the plot takes off.

I hope you enjoy the flight as much, if not more, than I did.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/platform-decay-by-martha-wells/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172587

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/taylor-jenkins-reid-some-kdds-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172565

Problematic Summer Romance

RECOMMENDED: Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood is $2.99! Fingers crossed this deal lasts. Elyse gave this one an A-:

Problematic Summer Romance is a friends-to-lovers romance/brother’s best friend romance, but it utilizes those tropes without any masculine over-protectiveness, which I appreciated. It’s also a romance that’s light on external conflict, but heavy on emotional growth, which was perfect for me.

What is wrong meets what feels right in this romance set in Italy by the New York Times bestselling author of Deep End.

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.

Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.

It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.

But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.

When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Atmosphere

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is $2.99! This is set during the 1980s space shuttle program. I’m not sure if you’d classify Reid’s books as romances or more fiction with romantic subplots. Sound off in the comments!

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

A Feather So Black

A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene is $1.99! This is a Kindle Daily Deal and this fantasy novel was mentioned in a previous Hide Your Wallet. Love the cover on this one!

Set in a world of perilous magic and moonlit forests, this seductive romantic fantasy tells the story of a defiant changeling, her cursed sister, and the dangerous fae lord she must defeat to save her family.

In a kingdom where magic has been lost, Fia is a rare changeling, left behind by the wicked Fair Folk when they stole the High Queen’s daughter and retreated behind the locked gates of Tír na nÓg.

Most despise Fia’s fae blood. But the queen raises her as a daughter and trains her to be a spy. Meanwhile, the real princess Eala is bound to Tír na nÓg, cursed to become a swan by day and only returning to her true form at night.

When a hidden gate to the realm is discovered, Fia is tasked by the queen to retrieve the princess and break her curse. But she doesn’t go alone: with her is prince Rogan, Fia’s dearest childhood friend—and Eala’s betrothed.

As they journey through the forests of the Folk, where magic winds through the roots of the trees and beauty can be a deadly illusion, Fia’s mission is complicated by her feelings for the prince…and her unexpected attraction to the dark-hearted fae lord holding Eala captive. Irian might be more monster than man, but he seems to understand Fia in a way no one ever has.

Soon, Fia begins to question the truth of her mission. But time is running out to break her sister’s curse. And unraveling the secrets of the past might destroy everything she has come to love.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Under Her Skin

Under Her Skin by Adriana Anders is $2.99 and a KDD! This is a dark contemporary romance and was Anders’ debut. Be sure to check Goodreads or another resource for all of the triggers – the heroine has experienced some harrowing abuse.

Battered by a life determined to tear him down, this quiet ex-con’s scarred hands may be the gentlest touch she’ll ever know.

…if only life were a fairy tale where Beauty was allowed to keep her Beast

Ivan thought the world was through giving him second chances. Who’d want a rough ex-con with a savior complex and a bad habit of bringing home helpless strays? Everyone in Blackwood, Virginia knew he wasn’t good enough for the fine things in life; they knew he was too damaged to save. He just needed to keep his head down, work himself to the bone, and pretend he was content with the lot he was given.

Until she came into his life. Until she changed everything.

Until he realized he would do anything, fight anyone, tear the world apart if it meant saving her.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/taylor-jenkins-reid-some-kdds-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172565

andrewducker

We've taken this week off work with no children (after Monday's bank holiday) for the first time in 8 years. The idea being that we could spend a bit of time with each other, spend a bit of time decompressing, and do some stuff around the house that was never happening when there were children underfoot

So yesterday we went out and had a relaxed day together at Jupiter Artland, essentially the fields and woods around an old country house with sculptures installed intermittently, so that you can have a lovely scenic walk intermittently punctuated by conversations about whatever you've just encountered. I had been there once before, a decade ago. Jane hadn't been there before at all, so it was a nice morning out.

And then today we had some actual energy to put into making the house nice. The "playroom" has been a dumping ground for kids toys for the last 2 years, since we moved back in. Every bit of plastic nonsense we'd accumulated for the past 8 years, either bought, given to us, or arriving on the front of magazines - sitting in boxes or bags or piled on shelves. Our cleaner Lana had repeatedly done an amazing job of sorting it thematically, only for us to then be too sick, tired, or otherwise incapable of doing anything about it. Turns out what we needed was a few days in a row with no children to let us recharge to the point where we could actually motivate ourselves.

So we just removed 8 bin bags full of stuff from the "playroom" and put them in the bins at the end of the street. And also about 3 bins bag of stuff are in the drive and will go to the charity shops when I pick up the kids at 5pm. And now Sophia's room has a floor and we will be able to put a bed in there.

(Undoubtedly the children will have questions when they get home.)

sabotabby

Just finished: Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story Of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple. God this is amazing. I don't know what to add; I think iI get a similar thrill with the sense of political and cultural recognition that other people get when they see a character like themselves in fiction for the first time (who knew representation was important???). This is one of those "read this book if you want to better understand me" type things for me. Obviously it's not just therapy for curmudgeonly anti-Zionist anarch-ish middle-aged Jewish women—the history is important, knowing about the strategy and failures are important, the narrative of fighting in the face of defeat is important. But it also helped reset some of my despair.

BTW it's a long slog but about halfway through when they hit the end of WWII I was like, huh, half the book is left??? half the book is footnotes.

Wake Up! (Seasons, Book Winter) by Ryszard I. Merey. Ah, let's read something short after the big, detailed history book—oh no this one is fairly brutal too. This is the third book in the Seasons project (the first two are a + e 4ever and Read and then Burn This, which I also highly recommend), all of which have to do with toxic relationships and gender fuckery, if you like that kind of thing. I do. This is about Tian, a down-on-her-luck tattoo artist. Her fiancée has left her after she's come out as trans, and she's left with an apartment she can't afford. Al, a man she rescues one night, has rent money, but that's because he's a high-stakes mahjong player in deep with some sketchy characters. It's a hallucinogenic fever dream with an unreliable narrator and a shifting, capricious timeline. Beautifully written, absolutely tragic, and if you want you can get a special German edition on sparkly paper that's tiny.

Currently reading: Nothing, starting Five Points On an Invisible Line by Su J Sokol next.

andrewducker

1. "Never Just a Period": (tags:menstruation advertising viaLilysea video )
2. Large demographic shifts are upending the social order: (tags:society demographics doom video )

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/lets-talk-about-con-behavior/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172552

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.

Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/lets-talk-about-con-behavior/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172552

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/05/06/tattooine

New Comic: Tattooine

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/05/06/tattooine

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/links-pangea-spaceballs-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172556

An illustrated image of a desk space with a computer, stack of books, reading glasses, and a mug. Welcome back and welcome to May!

Have I complained yet about how busy this month is for me? I’m already looking forward to Memorial Day weekend. A friend and I are doing a staycation to just read and relax, and then my brother and sister-in-law visit!

Keeping my fingers crossed for a very chill summer.

…

The Women’s Game Fest is running now through Halloween on Itchio.

As an aside, I totally understand those that may not want to support the site. Almost a year ago, Itchio started deindexing NSFW/adult games, which we discussed on the site, I think in a Wednesday Links post. I’m kind of unsure what became of that (did it fully stick? did they restructure how they handle adult games?) and couldn’t find a clear answer while googling.

…

I’ll be in conversation with author Mary Berman at Lovestruck Books on May 20th! We’ll be discussing her debut Until Death, which is Gothic horror meets wedding planning. Come say hey!

…

From EC Spurlock: This site is fascinating – it shows where your current location originally was in terms of the ancestral continent Pangea, as well as what your original altitude was. TIL Atlanta was originally 15 feet below sea level!

…

Lastly, did you hear there’s going to be a Spaceballs sequel? Only a teaser, so far, has been shared.

Watch on YouTube

…

Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/links-pangea-spaceballs-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172556

sovay

Counting by months,

rushthatspeaks and I have been together for fifteen and a half years and married for five and a half and missed any formal celebration of our last anniversary because I was on my way to a hospitalization and so when we found ourselves this afternoon at Castle Island where an absurdly stiff breeze was scooting parasailers like hi-vis velella all over Pleasure Bay, the most natural thing when we tired of walking a wind tunnel around the faience-glinting waves was to pursue a meal on the brick-backed patio of our traditional anniversary restaurant, South Boston's ten-year-old Venetian-style bacaro SRV. We found street parking right around the corner. We ordered a smattering of cicchetti—the never-bettered polpette in their velvet of red sauce, the squid-black crostini topped with salt tufts of baccalà, a translucent dab of quince atop a sweetly plush mouthful of ricotta and salumi, an astonishing smear of uni and oyster butter sharpened with mignonette, plus a kitchen gift of lightly crisped eggplant—and a lambent scallop crudo dressed like the jeweled sea with tiny cubes of astringent kiwi and creamy pistachio and torn fresh mint, served on a shell I would have kept if it had come from a beach and not a restaurant I wanted to let me back through its doors ever again. Even the foccacia was bouncy, salt-skinned, assertive enough to eat even without wiping out the bright tomato sauce left over from the eggplant. My amaro mocktail was as darkly herbal as if it could have gotten me high and Rush-That-Speaks' Salt of the Earth was a tongue-spinning concoction of mezcal, fennel, and absinthe that should not have been able to taste so much like green brine. We wrote them an appreciative note and promised to return before autumn, declining their non-negligible roster of desserts in favor of checking out Uncommon Ice Cream up the street, which had not existed the last time we ate at SRV. Rush got the strawberry which really meant its cinnamon toast crunch swirl and I had the savorily flecked rosemary honeycomb. It had been actual ages since I just walked into a restaurant for an affordably luxurious meal with someone I loved, as in the pre-glacial world I could inhabit more or less safely. The two-hour free space on Mass. Ave. was just a present from the parking gods.

Current Music: Jim Ghedi, "The Seasons"

petra

Mind you, I didn't remember till quarter past bedtime, so I am not done reading yet. But I will read!

Current Mood: socially constructed
Current Music: Injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected, and selected

julian

Pepperell has an open Town Meeting, which is to say, Pepperell has the New England tradition of Town Meeting, in which The Populace decides what the town is going to spend and do over the course of the next year. This often amounts to rubberstamping the votes of the Select Board and the School Committee on the budgets, but they do also result in actual questions and actual decisions on some topics, like zoning stuff, so it does involve actual democracy, too.

In some towns, it involves elected representatives being Town Meeting Members (my mom was a Town Meeting Member for literal decades), which is called Representative Town Meeting. Pepperell, as noted, has Open Town Meeting, in which all residents (or in some cases, all registered voters in the town) can deliberate, so I went, rather gleefully, and I was in full Anthropology mode. (I am, yes, registered already. Because.)

I covered Town Meetings for my newspaper, of course, so I went to Every One, and Could Not Vote, had to pay attention to Everything and Be Neutral and Make Sure I Stayed Til The End, so the best thing about last night was I got to leave early.

Aherm.

But I also got to vote! So that was fun. And I identified the people who ask good questions and people sigh in relief when they stand up, and the ones who ask incessant ones forever, about whom other people sigh and mutter about to their neighbors, and I enjoyed the Town Moderator, who isn't as good, Roberts-Rules-wise, as Dedham's long-time one who just retired, but is funny, which is a boon.

They do have Info Sessions the week beforehand (what we called Mini Town Meeting in Dedham), which I did not manage to find out about this time, so I Now Know for future use.

I ran into my neighbor, who works in the Town Clerk's office -- she's one of the people who checks people in, so we nodded to each other in the hallway and I got swept off to the main auditorium. (As is tradition, it was in a school auditorium.) They asked, at the beginning, if anyone was new, and a youngish guy and I waved, and people nodded at us, and the couple next to me said they'd lived in Pepperell 40 years and always came, and I said I was used to Town Meetings because of the newspaper, and it turned out the wife had been in newspapers, too, so that was nice. (Not that I remember their names, but, you know, I can nod to them in future.)

There were a lot of presentations and the thing I was trying to stick around for didn't happen by 9:45, so. I went home. (They have to deal with PFAS contamination in their municipal water supply, and had gotten money for it, but things have changed slightly so they need more money, and I figured it'd be controversial. I don't have to care about the contamination because I have a well, but I do want to Make Sure They Spend Their Money Right.) Alas, I have an early client on Tuesdays, so, as I said, I got to Leave! Yay!

Anyway. Am glad. Like Participating.

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Him

Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy is 99c! This has been a huge favorite of commenters on the site when it first released. Have you read it?

They don’t play for the same team. Or do they?

Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wise-cracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were eighteen? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

Ryan Wesley’s biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he’ll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever.

Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions—can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? When Wesley turns up to coach alongside Jamie for one more hot summer at camp, Jamie has a few things to discover about his old friend…and a big one to learn about himself.

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The Lost Story

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is $1.99! Shaffer just came out with a new release back in April, which is probably why this one is on sale. I mentioned this on Get Rec’d because I heard it described as “CSI: Narnia.”

Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.

Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.

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A Curse So Dark and Lonely

RECOMMENDED: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer is $1.99! This one was recommended to Carrie and she really enjoyed it, giving the book an A-:

I enjoyed the way this book both used and subverted Beauty and the Beast tropes. There’s a good blend of angst and humor and worldbuilding.

In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

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Dark Succession

RECOMMENDED: Dark Succession by Katee Robert is $1.99! This was previously published under The Marriage Contract (confusing) and has since had a cover resdesign. Elyse’s reviewed this one and she gave it an A:

If you had told me that I’d really love a book about the children of two Boston mob bosses being in an arranged marriage, I’d have raised a skeptical eyebrow. But I’m so so glad that The Marriage Contract proved me wrong because I enjoyed it immensely.

The New York Times bestselling author of Radiant Sin delivers a smoking hot series about the O’Malley family—wealthy, powerful, dangerous and seething with scandal.

Teague O’Malley hates everything associated with his family’s name. And when his father orders him to marry Callista Sheridan to create a “business” alliance, Teague’s ready to cut ties once and for all. But then Teague actually meets Callista, sees the bruises on her neck and the trauma in her eyes and vows he will do everything in his power to avenge her.

Everyone knows the O’Malleys are dangerous. But Callie wasn’t prepared for his brand of lethal grace and coiled power. His slightest touch scorches through her. But the closer they get, the more trouble they’re in. Because Callie’s keeping a dark secret—and what Teague doesn’t know could get him killed.

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Platform Decay

Problematic Summer Romance

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Atmosphere

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A Feather So Black

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Under Her Skin

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Him

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The Lost Story

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A Curse So Dark and Lonely

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Dark Succession

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