april

I silently observed Edible Book Day this year.  I have been unable to get any coworkers on board, and with my current food restrictions, I wasn't up for making something big on my own.

Spider woman's daughter by Anne Hillerman.  I knew that this was a continuation/spin-off, and it seems not too terribly difficult to jump into the story here, although references to previous cases seem unnecessarily heavy.  Annoying, but  I probably could have lived with it.  I quit because of the language and writing, though: it's amazingly clunky and unrealistic, especially the dialogue.  There were also some awkward, obvious info-dumps not at all incorporated into the story.  Super poor-quality writing.

Kingdom, series 2 and 3, with Stephen Fry.  Enjoyable, glad I watched it, recommended for fans of British TV.  I'm not sure why they ended series 3 on such a big cliffhanger, since another season wasn't guaranteed.  It made for a weird ending.  Also, the plot device didn't make sense: there was no reason (trying not to be too spoiler-y here) for the hospital to run the kind of test they did, and seems like it may have been an invasion of privacy.  So, general confusion and dissatisfaction with the final episode, but otherwise good.

The folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson; narrated by Michael Fenton Stevens.  This was great fun, but definitely only of interest to the author's fans.  It was very interesting for me, since I have gone through periods of reading a lot of folklore and mythology.  There are so many things in the Discworld that seem sorta like they are probably based on something real but not anything in particular that I was familiar with, so it was interesting and delightful to hear about all these traditional customs, mostly from rural or historical Europe, that I hadn't come across before. 

Stone mad by Elizabeth Bear.  This is short-- more of a novella, really-- and I'm not sure what it's supposed to add to the series' universe.  Granted that it has been a while (wow, quite a while) since I read the first one, but I remembered it as being more steampunk, less gaslamp, whereas this one, while it certainly had some steampunk accoutrements, relied more on a paranormal being.  This made it seem like it didn't fit as well into the universe established in the first book.  Still enjoyable if short.

The secret loves of geek girls, edited by Hope Nicholson.  I think I picked this up based entirely on the title, so made up some interesting expectations going in.  Although not what I was expecting, this was mostly still pretty good.  Some of the essays felt like something shot off in an hour, but most of them felt more complete.  The essays and illustrations cover a wide array of topics related to relationships: long-distance relationships, coming out, work-home balance, and learning about oneself.