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I don't like horror in any form, but there are points that where it dives into it. I have been dealing with the current news of my country by reading sci-fi/fantasy/historical and borderline romance books for my mental health. This is a series by Sarah J. Maas, the 2nd book called, 'House of Sky and Breath' and yeah there are bits that I seem to read at meals that are gross. Don't know why those always hit me then. Just lucky? The demon is an occasional character that appears in the books to support the main character as a child and later tease/guide her as an adult. But he is still a demon. I am waiting on two releases from other authors that are pre-ordered. And hope another will come out with another one also.
So I was looking at the question, "Horror or lighter?"
And I just assumed that "horror" and "lighter" were two different genres. As if the question was something like, "horror or comedy?"
I spent some time trying to figure out what type of show is a Lighter show. It wasn't until today that I realized "lighter" just meant "less like horror".
This is why I can't prove I'm not a robot.
Lighter (or comedy) might be Nick Adams and his 'Fold' series. While I have read Adams in the past, I am just not in the mood now for this at the time. I dropped reading the first book of that series in frustration.
I have other books I have bought, but they are either on socio-economics or political or managment/leadership, or ones that I read in hard/paperback and loved and am buying the e-book so I can read them again. My eyesight is bad enough that long-term reading is difficult, even with new glasses.
I can't say what grabs my mind, but a lot of that is what my mood is and why I need to be diverted. DAZ helps to some degree, books and exercise also.
I just found out there is a Girl 8. I put her into my wishlist. I think I am going to start putting a bunch of stuff that looks interesting into my wishlist as there are wishlist sales randomly.
If you're interested in myth-retellings, I'd highly HIGHLY recommend Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters series (first is Daughter of the Forest) which is a retelling of the Seven Swans myth (for the first book, anyway, the others go off from there) and her Wildwood Dancing which is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses tale (she takes some liberties, but they're all good liberties IMHO). (That one also has a sequel that has nothing to do with the tale itself, but is amazing.)
She's such an engrossing author that when I was reading Daughter of the Forest, at one point my cat startled me into a yelp, and my first thought was the anguished realization that I'd screwed up my brothers' one chance to be human again. (I only have one, and to the best of my knowledge he has never been cursed to the form of a swan.)
Yellow Sky: The view from my kitchen window looks as if someone had slipped a yellow filter across it. Smoke from the Canadian fires. Temp 88F, humid but breathable.
Non-complaint: Despite this being the third humid-er day and the temps getting bolder too, I can keep the apartment under 81F by opening an upstairs window and putting an exhaust fan down stair where it draws through the whole apartment. But after I've tolerated 82F for a while it's time to close the windows, turn on the A/C and turn on a couple of fans around the house to try to push the A/C where it's needed.
Non-complaint: Yay, trip to Erie is still on.
We're getting the yellowish sky from the fires, too. I saw some news reports earlier, and t's worse in the Boston/coastal area than it is where I am (north central MA). But it still messes up an otherwise pleasant day. Bleh.
complaint: My electric cooperative just issued an energy emergency notification in response to the sustained unholy heat... super rare they do that, so I'm nervous. I was already opreating under best efforts to reduce load on the grid, just out of common sense, but hopefully others who weren't will step up and do so as well.
non-complaint: Highs are supposed to drop down to the 80's next week... we'll see about the humidity. But there's something resembling hope on the horizon at least.
complaint: But there's a lot of days between now and then, and Little Dude is feeling the lack of walks. Not that we could go anyway, with the air quality alerts from the wildfires up north... but I feel petty complaining about air quality when parts of my state are literally on fire, and the entire Boundary Waters is being evacuated. Eight park rangers and four canoes to check 1,900 campsites. They're thinking it'll take a week. I'm hoping everyone makes it out okay.
That smoke is reaching all the way down to us in northeastern North Carolina.
Smoke here in Southeastern Massachusetts area is heavy. It had looked like dusk all day! A little eerie when lights are needed in the house at 1:00 pm!
Thanks, I've heard of Sara J Maas but not yet read any of her books (I have bene very slow the last few years).
I checked & the smoke isn't supposed to make it to Arkansas.
Hope it doesn't get too bad for people in the path
Must be bad.
You could go round the neighbourhood unplugging all the EVs from their chargers.... (joking)
Yeah, really doubt we've got much of that around here. It's a safe neighborhood (as far as any neighborhood in Minnesota can be called safe anymore), but definitely peasant section. Folk don't tend to move into 50-year-old quad homes if they can afford EVs.
I had to look up what a quad home was, and then tried looking up other weird and wonderful US house descriptions, like shotgun house, double shotgun, camel backed shotgun. ?!? Row house is sorta explicable, but doesn't seem as frequent as over here.
The UK 'cheap' equivalent home to the quad for private rental or first time buyers is more like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byelaw_terraced_house My daughter has just bought one like the ones in the first image in the article, the terrace it's part of is 30 houses long, with a road frontage of 11ft6in per house and an access foot passage alley (4ft wide) to the back every 8 houses or so. Good thing she doesn't have a car as there is no off road parking.
Regards,
Richard
Thank you @SilverGirl I looked her up in my Books app and also made note of her on a postette. (My computer monitor has many noting authors and muscians I want to purchase. Or reminders to install.)
Regarding the smoke or haze, right now we can see the Rockies, but after the past week I am in the habit of waking up and looking first out 'breathability' score for the day on The Weather Channel's app on my phone and then look at the temperature now and forecasted for the day. I did get a pleasant surprise yesterday when I received my electric bill. The previous one was $140.00+ and yesterday $105.00+. I think the higher number was having to wash 4 days straight of bed linens prior to my surgery and after. Dryers use a lot of juice. If air is clean, I open windows early to capture colder air and then close them when temps rise, close curtains, and turn off my computers at 10am may be helping too, along with the surge protectors at 5pm when the higher electric costs kick in. We are expecting the rain from the monsoons finally next week and cooler temps. While we have been in the 90s my flatmate and I have both lived in the desert southwest and know what it is like to be at a 100+F degrees at 9am in the morning. (But it is generally a DRY heat.) I feel for everyone who is dealing with these temps with humidity too.
I have been working on world buidling actually multiverse building. It is like world buidling but on a bigger scale.
Try k.b. wagers. She has two sci-fi series set in the future, one 2500? and the other 3400? (I am terrible at numbers) and they have primary characters that highlight the wide diversity of the Earth and its people made their way out into the stars and how they blended together, or not. And in one of the series, The Indranan War and its sequel, how they live with alien cultures. But in no case is the lead characters 'another pretty little white girl'.
Not So Yellow Today: The view from my kitchen window this morning is grayish, foggy-like, but not fog. And I can smell wood burning (probably Canada
) Kinda reminds me of that South Park movie where they sang "Burn Canada", ..., no, ..., wait, ... that doesn't seem right, ..., ah, here it is.
We have some of those in the area, too, in the new developments that went up when they back-filled the rock quarry, but wow they are not what I'd consider affordable. (ETA: they're much more upscale looking on the outside though.) I'm not sure why, but certain areas of my suburb got really gentrified over the last 30ish years. I'm not fond of the culture shift that came with it. Lots of entitled people looking down their nose at us regular folk. And now all the businesses cater to them because that's where the money is. It does mean both thrift stores can have some really nice stuff, though.
Out of curiosity I looked up quad homes just to see what you found, and apparently there are a few configurations, which I hadn't realized. Mine is basically one big rectangle divided lengthwise and widthwise, so each unit is a corner with the front on the wide side. I share a bedroom wall with my driveway neighbor, and the wall that runs along the back of my bedroom (closet), bathroom, kitchen, and dining room (and basement) I share with the other neighbor. The garage is tucked under the upstairs bedrooms and sides up to the basement.
Whelp, apparently Minnesota currently has the worst AQI in the world right now. Thankfully where I'm at it's "only" 400-ish, but up north in some places it's over 1,000.
My poor state is not having a good year.
I would rather we be #1 in awesome hot dishes and number of times someone says "ope."
I have another friend who lives in Minnesota and he says their advising children & elderly not to be out for more than 15 minutes.
Well, I've been going through a lot of personal stuff lately, haven't we all.
I've been coping as best I can with the following :
I am turning 73 next month.
I live with my older brother. Or he lives with me. Not sure which.
We were so sick with a stomach virus a month ago, and are still feeling weak from that.
About a week ago, I banged the toes of my left foot against an unmovable piece of furniture, causing further damage (I have hammertoes on that foot). I was able to treat that myself, still healing nicely.
I woke up this morning about 9 a.m., I was taking my morning meds, my brother starts telling me that while I was asleep, the doctor's office where we went yesterday to get our bloodwork done had called and said that his salt level is spiking, and he was waiting for his daughter to come pick him up to go to the hospital. So...yeah.
Then I just scraped the top layer of skin off my elbow on the only brick wall on the inside of the house. I'm grateful for triple antibiotic cream which I always have on hand. Or foot. Or elbow.
So I have come to ask for your prayers, good thoughts, energy , whatever you can spare
.
Thanks,
John
I hope things get better soon, you need a break!
That is a lot. Hope it lets up for you soon.
@ Dana and butterfly.
Thank you.
I'm waiting by the phone at home, my niece is sending me update texts whenever they are free. Last I read, he was going for a CT scan.
Yikes, @TJohn ... sending good vibes that your brother's issue is easily handled, and that things turn around for you both.