Strong Verbs Are Just Better

It's been a while. Travelling happened! So did travelling book acquisition, in both e-book and hard copy format. I also had to make the final cull of my unread books shelf - five or six into my luggage for the next six weeks, some to give away, and the rest into long term storage.

Currently Reading: Various, but the most significant is Lord of the Rings, which I bought in e-book (thereby convincing myself to give up my paper 'reading' copies) and read during the UK trip. I'm having a lot of feelings - a mix of new observations, interesting interpretive crossovers between book and movie, amusing takes based on now not taking it so Seriously, and just... feelings. Now is an interesting time to essentially climb back inside 16 y old me's happy/safe place - although it is amusing that I've finally achieved the perfect balance between my ideal holiday and mum's. I now appreciate the attractions of Small Towns (although as there's only one of me, I can spend much more time eating cake and drinking interesting drinks than we did on family budget holidays), and of going for walks; but I get to combine those (often simultaneously - I perched on a stile above Cheddar and read) with long stretches of reading LOTR per day. Excellent.

Recently Finished: This selection covers the week before I left for conferences, and the first part of the conference trip, I think.

The Edge of the Abyss by Emily Skrutskie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Huh. On the one hand, this showed excellent worldbuilding, and some interesting character development. On the other hand, it was too rushed, and skimped its logic in the conclusion. It should've been book two of a trilogy, not the conclusion of a duology: I kind of wonder if it was originally planned as 2/3 and cut down to publisher demands.

Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was absolutely adorable. Some of the stories and most of the poems I recognised from Ursula's blog, but some were new, and it was great having them all in the one place.

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Oh, wow. I think this book may be to my early 30s what 'Portrait of a Lady' was to my early 20s. I spent the first third of the book torn between a desire to give Lucy Snowe a stern talking to for her poor life choices, and a desire to convince her to run away with me, that we might be anti-social together.

The depictions of Lucy's social insecurity - the moments when she returns from being with her friends and closes off her emotions, her hopes, her everything, because she just does not believe she deserves or can expect even the simplest of friendship ongoing: those were, ouch. Very well sketched, shall we say?

Her ??love interest?? is an absolute weirdo. More interesting, in some ways, than Professor Bhaer - my problem with feeling cynical about Jo March's marriage is I do LIKE Bhaer and I genuinely /like/ their relationship. Lucy and M. Paul, on the other hand: I don't even know what to think. The only thing they have going for them is a mutual appreciation for each other's weirdness, but as that includes all the reasons why neither of them is or really wants to be married, it's... hard to picture. And as Teh Queer Scholars are quick to point out, in some of the early prolepses, Lucy describes herself at the time of retrospectively telling the tale as wearing clothing typical of an old maid, not a wife or widow. So. That's. A thing.

The play scene was definitely Something, too. Sharon Marcus aint wrong about this book, is all I have to say here.

A Summer for Scandal by Lydia San Andres

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was really interesting - engaging plot and side plots, detailed but unsual-for-the-genre setting, romance that Worked, thoughtful approach to the types and politics of sex in context.


First Position by Melissa Brayden

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Hmm. Setting good. Plot and sexual tension, good. Prose very flat. Relationship dynamic sparking off the page; actual sex scenes varying from 'meh' to '... wait, has this author ever had sex with, or BEEN, a woman?'


The Doctor's Discretion by E.E. Ottoman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was notably better than First Position, and does some really interesting work with realising a trans and/or intersex character (his anatomy is not described in terms that compare it to cis and normative anatomy, so it's not possible to tell). The 'heist' part of the plot is pulled off well, but the main ship fell a little flat, I thought, and the book overall was... too short to develop a proper romance plot level of to-and-fro.

Up Next: What have I saved from the storage? 'Death on the Cherwell', which I picked up in Leeds, and a book from Persephone Books in London. 'The Queer Child', and... some others I've forgotten.

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Music notes: haven't added anything new for a while, although the pre-order for Amy Shark's 'Love Monster' finally came in, and I like it. Kind of reminds me of Little Birdy.

Seen on the eastern shore of Derwent Water, July 2017:



More photos from that expedition and others are slowly drip-feeding through to speculumannorum_feed

Bought a hat for Pride Fribourg, after losing the previous in Morocco. Wore it on plane to UK. Left it on train Leeds-London, didn't realise until yesterday.

Got vr burned at Duxford airshow (plaaaanes!). Went and bought a hat in Cambridge today; lost it within five hours. Hopefully I left it in Michaelhouse and can pick it up from there tomorrow before we head to Bath via Oxford.

Traveling with parentals is tiring (they are inexperienced in the big wide world, but also now old enough that they are slow to intuit things or recognise patterns). Travelling with Brooke is very tiring. Not just the usual over-tired kid thing, although that's bad enough (the sun gets up early and so does miss six! Even if she didn't get to bed until eleven!). I have never met a child so paranoid. I spoke to her loudly today- "Brooke, you're walking INTO PEOPLE" - when she skittered across the pavement, and that bought us five minutes of hiding her face in mum's and my legs, and big crocodile tears. Absolutely convinced she's going to be In Trouble and, i dunno, banished forever? This happens 2-3 times a day.

She's also having difficulty with the idea that I am, in fact, travelling with them. "Amy, can you eat with us today?" Where else do you think I'm gonna eat, kid? We're in the same car! On the same holiday! Being paid for by the same parents!

In addition to the hat crisis, I accidentally bought tickets for Duxford Flying Legends 'Meet the Fighters' in September instead of regular Flying Legends. liv, if you see this, please enquire of your people if three adult and one child ticket for the 10th of Sept would be of use to them. I think young B would be into it.

Wow. Two months has been a LONG TIME, this time. As with previous such posts, social media means you've probably got the idea, but here, a summary, with pictures!

( Things I did and things I took pictures of, or, a post with ducks )

Holy Cross church, Sarratt, Hertfordshire (12c, with a 15c tower)

In link form, other things I have posted since setting up speculumannorum:

Interior features of Holy Cross, Sarratt

My first encounter with starlings

Holy Trinity, Bordesley, at sunset (including an exciting story about sacriligous legal use of communion wafers!)

Some socks which I knitted for leareth.

Some photos of Moseley, Birmingham, with which I am not entirely satisfied. It was oddly difficult to get photos of Moseley which weren't hideous.

The English coast from the air

A genevois intersection with distant mountain

6th century font from the mindblowing archaeological open-house under St Peter's Cathedral. Tons of stuff, from a pre-roman tomb right up to the 11c. crypt, all preserved for public viewing. I AM DED OF HISTORICAL OVERLOAD.

Ten or eleven days of posts queued up on Tumblr, featuring St Peters and the adjacent Chapel of the Maccabees, and some older photos of Brixworth, UK.

Shortly before we headed to France, Dr J's mother drove to Oxford and we went down to an absolutely charming pub, only accessible by towpath or barge.

But first, some bees in lavender:



( Iffley Lock & the Isis Farmhouse )

We had morning tea and lunch in Wells. If you recall, we also had a fiasco with abandoned/vanished luggage. Don't leave your suitcase lying around in historic places! Also don't drag your suitcase across 14th century flagstones. You see our problems...

( All outdoor photos )

Also, be it known that the King's Head is an excellent pub.