smallhobbit | Network

Graphic 1 of 4. A decoration of pink and orange leaves and text on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The text reads: Our Favorite Lesbian Books for Lesbian Visibility Day.

Graphic 2 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Breaking Character by Lee Winter; Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang; The Girl from the Sea by Lee Knox Ostertag; But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo; Kase-San and Morning Glories by Hiromi Takashima; The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite; Goodbye, My Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco; A Master of Djinn by P. Dj�l� Clark; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab; Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott; Matrix by Lauren Groff.

Graphic 3 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone; The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson; One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston; The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu; Spent by Alison Bechdel; Alter Ego by Ana C. S�nchez; Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir; She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine; All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny; The Unbroken by C.L. Clark.

Graphic 4 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin; Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan; Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle; The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite; Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley; Burning Roses by S.L. Huang; Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas; Yuri Espoir by Mai Naoi; Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo; Proper English by KJ Charles; Skullrunner by Vyvre Argent.

HAPPY LESBIAN VISIBILITY WEEK! We asked our rec list recommenders for books starring lesbian characters, and boy did they deliver! With these books added in, we’ve now recommended over 100 books with lesbian main characters over the past few years (links to those full lists are at the end of the post). The contributors to the list are: Ivy L. James, Tryan A Bex, Shea Sullivan, jumblejen, Evangeline Giaconia, Shannon, Rascal Hartley, Shadaras, Sebastian Marie, Dei Walker, Mikki Madison, Puck, Nina Waters, E. C., and Linnea Peterson.

Breaking Character by Lee Winter
Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang
The Girl from the Sea by Lee Knox Ostertag
But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
Kase-San and… series by Hiromi Takashima
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Goodbye, My Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
The Beauty’s Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu
Spent by Alison Bechdel
Alter Ego by Ana C. Sánchez
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny
The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite
Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley
Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
Yuri Espoir by Mai Naoi
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Proper English by KJ Charles
Skullrunner by Vyvre Argent

Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf, grab our Pagebound.co list, or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.

Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat books, fandom, and more!

susandennis

I've kind of enjoyed my break from the pool but I'm over it now. Erica was hopeful that they could get it open today which would be fine by me.

I do think I may have solved a bit of my shower issue, though. There's a toilet paper stand that is in the way and Amazon is bringing me a much smaller one that may make it less of a PIA to use the shower. It arrives today - assembly required. I have several Amazon purchases arriving today.

One is a pill shooter. Biggie has this gynormous tablet that he has two take twice a day. Plus a much smaller one. The smaller one is no problem but that giant one is killing us both. Actually, it's just annoying him but between his teeth and claws my hand is not faring well.

I can't put it in his food because 1. I can't guarantee he'd even eat it all and 2. Julio might eat it. I can't put it in a pill pocket because he's not allowed non-prescription food. So we're going to try a pill pistol if I can find one that will handle a pill this size. Cutting it in half is not an option. I actually have a smaller version and could do that twice making 5 pills a day. ugly option.

No plans for today. I worked up a little doll backlog so I spent some time on my mitered corner blanket yesterday. I may do more today.

mific

I'm feeling too tired to write properly about this, but here goes. I'm subscribed to NZ National Geographic online magazine, which is a reasonably trustworthy source, and last Friday I learned that NZ only has 18 days of onshore diesel stored. By now I guess it's down to 15 days. No idea if the article is accessible if you don't have a sub, but here's the link.

I've been ruminating in a confused way about that, since Friday. Will it be the start of supply line collapse here, as we're at the far end of that chain, in worldwide terms? Or just a period of restrictions, annoyances and a degree of belt tightening? It'll affect two things massively - transport, and farming. Like, the trucks that bring food and essentials to supermarkets, and deliver groceries to us, and in the longer term, it'll affect the farms growing the food.

Bring an old bastard who's profoundly unfit and who doesn't get out much, there's not a lot I can do for others, except maybe to help my immediate neighbours in some way. And I vacillate between vague prepping notions, nihilism, and thinking it'll turn out to be nothing after all. But I read apocafics, so I wonder. I mean, my car's petrol tank is fairly full and I use it only occasionally, but if it runs out will there still be buses? Which doubtless run on diesel. And if petrol gets harder to come by will people start stealing it, like, siphoning it off from cars parked outside like mine is, close to the road?

The fuel crisis expert guy in the article, Nathan Surendran, recommends talking to neighbours to prepare, but I'd definitely feel weird if I did that. At this point, anyway, when things alternate between feeling totally normal or like we're all fiddling while Rome burns. Or doesn't burn, due to the lack of diesel.

Guess I'll get an extra grocery delivery in, and make sure I have seeds in case I need to clear my garden beds of flowers and plant veggies more seriously. And I did unearth my camping gas stove and lamp in the last "cyclone", but I think we'll have power, as most of our grid runs on hydroelectricity (with the parts to repair the power stations probably delivered by diesel-powered trucks).

Well, we'll see if this is anything. Covid was fast. A week or three of worrying reports then (for us, here) whammo, lockdown. It felt surreal at the time. This is like that pre-Covid prodromal period with some signs and warnings cropping up but no one here taking it seriously, mostly. And our government now is largely shits and idiots, not a decent crisis leader like Jacinta, who actually listened to experts.

I'll keep fiddling, and let you know how it goes.

evilwriter37

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

tcampbell1000 posting in

scans_daily

JLE #30 (Giffen-Jones-Robertson) begins with a dream sequence that’d disorient you whether you’d read Armageddon 2001 or not. In “Breakdowns Part 5,” Captain Atom was alive and well and being reinstated to the League, so you’d expect that to still be the case at the start of “Breakdowns Part 6.”

But if you had read A2001, you would’ve seen Captain Atom “dying” a hero and future Captain Atom as a mournful, crazed victim. ( You’d also have seen two other characters assassinated, one figuratively and the other literally, but let’s move on from that. )

med_cat

The world’s oldest octopus fossil isn’t an octopus after all, scientists say, from AP News

The earliest known public museum, from Wikipedia, via

minoanmiss

Here are the contents of an elite Minoan burial on the island of Aegina, from Carausius on Bluesky, via

amaebi

Edible art:

Watch on YouTube

fanlore_tumblr_feed

https://fanlore-wiki.tumblr.com/post/814420277810348033

unspeakabledigressions:

Me: Wow! You really used to write fan fiction, Grandma? What did you write about?
Grandma: Oh, it was for Star Trek. Just little stories about Kirk and Spock, you know?
Me:

Grandma was probably very aware of The Premise, if you aren’t, go check out the Fanlore page.

https://fanlore-wiki.tumblr.com/post/814420277810348033

james_davis_nicoll

Looking for more romance in your SF? Look no further...

Five Science Fictional Solutions to Finding Your One True Love

med_cat

Madame la Marquise

Said Hongray de la Glaciere unto his proud Papa:
"I want to take a wife mon Père," The Marquis laughed: "Ha! Ha!
And whose, my son?" he slyly said; but Hongray with a frown
Cried, "Fi! Papa, I mean - to wed, I want to settle down."
The Marquis de la Glaciere responded with a smile;
"You're young my boy; I much prefer that you should wait awhile."
But Hongray sighed: "I cannot wait, for I am twenty-four;
And I have met my blessed fate: I worship and adore.
Such beauty, grace and charm has she, I'm sure you will approve,
For if I live a century none other can I love."
"I have no doubt," the Marquis shrugged, "that she's a proper pet;
But has she got a decent dot, and is she of our set?"
"Her dot," said Hongray, "will suffice; her family you know.
The girl with whom I fain would splice is Mirabelle du Veau."

What made the Marquis start and stare, and clutch his perfumed beard?
Why did he stagger to a chair and murmur: "As I feared?"
Dilated were his eyes with dread, and in a voice of woe
He wailed: "My son, you cannot wed with Mirabelle du Veau."
"Why not? my Parent," Hongray cried. "Her name's without a slur.
Why should you look so horrified that I should wed with her?"
The Marquis groaned: "Unhappy lad! Forget her if you can,
And see in your respected Dad a miserable man."
"What is the matter? I repeat," said Hongray growing hot.
"She's witty, pretty, rich and sweet... Then- mille diables!- what?"
The Marquis moaned: "Alas! that I your dreams of bliss should banish;
It happened in the days gone-by, when I was Don Juanish.
Her mother was your mother's friend, and we were much together.
Ah well! You know how such things end. (I blame it on the weather.)
We had a very sultry spell. One day, mon Dieu! I kissed her.
My son, you can't wed Mirabelle. She is... she is your sister."

( So broken-hearted Hongray went and roamed the world around, )

By Robert Service

(reposted w. thanks from duathir in the greatpoets LJ comm, from Sept 25, 2025)

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday:

A Sapphic Dream, George Moore

I love the luminous poison of the moon,
The silence of illimitable seas,
Vast night, and all her myriad mysteries,
Perfumes that make the burdened senses swoon

And weaken will, large snakes who oscillate
Like lovely girls, immense exotic flowers,
And cats who purr through silk-enfestooned bowers
Where white-limbed women sleep in sumptuous state.

My soul e’er dreams, in such a dream as this is,
Visions of perfume, moonlight and the blisses
Of sexless love, and strange unreached kisses.

Moore (1852-1933) is best known for adapting French naturalism into English fiction, but before he turned novelist he was a poet under the influence of French symbolists. (He was also a childhood friend of Oscar Wilde.) This is from his first collection, Flowers of Passion (1878). After all the preceding orientalist imagery, that “sexless love” gets some heavy sideeye. Commit to the bit!

---L.

Subject quote from Hotel California, Eagles, and yes colitas are cannabis buds.

prettygoodword

satrap (SAY-trap, SA-trap) - n., the governor of a Persian province; a subordinate ruler, esp. a despotic one.

Specifically in the Achaemenid and Parthian dynasties of Persia, as well as the intervening Hellenistic Seleucid empire -- the system of satrapies was set up by Cyrus the Great around 530 BCE and lasted till dismantled by the new Sassanid dynasty around 230 CE, though the title was intermittently used by various nearby polities even afterwards. A satrap had considerable autonomy over his satrapy, and was technically a viceroy and thus spoke with the voice of the emperor. We got the word in the 1300s in the Middle English form satrape, from Latin satrapēs, governor, from Ancient Greek satrápēs, from Old Persian khshathrapāvā/xšaçapavan, protector of the province/domain, from khshathra-, realm/province + pāvā, protector.

---L.

cooperscreosote

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: giggly

love_jackianto1 posting in

anythingdrabble

This week's prompt is:

Inch

Have fun!

P.s. I'll take care of tagging.

lessonsinescapology

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

love_jackianto1 posting in

anythingdrabble

Prompt fills for challenge 435 (dw)

unicornduke

Hey all, if you'd like to join the crafting hangout, it is tonight from 6-8pm ET!

Video encouraged but not required!

Topic: Crafting Hangout

Time: Mondays 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Link

Meeting ID: 973 2674 2763

heleninwales

As well as listening to audiobooks with G while eating meals, I also listen to them while cooking, ironing, cleaning etc. It's not always easy to find things I like because I'm not buying them, I'm relying on what the library has to offer so the choice is more limited. However, it does mean that as they don't cost anything, I'm willing to try writers I've never heard of. Some work out, some don't.

The latest audiobook I tried by an author hitherto unknown to me was The Smoke and the Sea by Katie Cross. It's a fantasy and had some interesting ideas, including very small dragon-like creatures called "draguls" whose bite makes you invisible. The vital trade in jord (which seems to be their equivalent of guano) which is vital for growing food on a rocky and rather barren island. The main characters are a young woman who is a dragul keeper and Henrik, a loyal soldat of Stenberg. Now Hendrik's current stint of service is over, he is planning a couple of week's leave in order to go in search of his mother who he was separated from very young.

This all sounds fine and glancing at the Read an Extract on Amazon shows that the writing is ok. The narration, unfortunately, was not. The author was reading her own book. The American accent didn't bother me, but her attempt at doing some sort of "island" accent for Henrik and the other soldats was a disaster. It had hints of Oirish^[*], so instead of rough, tough, gruff soldiers, the soldats sounded like more like sad leprechauns. Her voice even seemed to rise higher in pitch when doing Henrik's dialogue, which was the opposite to how a man would sound. So I returned that audiobook and I'm now listening toSharpe's Tiger.

Now Rupert Farley, the narrator of the Sharpe novel is doing a really good job. There's one interesting thing though. I'm pretty sure that in an early novel (which I read many years ago) it's clear that Sharpe is from London. He's also a big guy. But I remember that when they made the TV series, Sean Bean made the part so much his own that, in later books, Bernard Cornwell began to made Book Sharpe more like Bean's TV Sharpe. Anyway, the narrator of the audiobook is doing a Yorkshire accent for Sharpe's dialogue. He distinguishes the other character's voices well too.

^[*] The terrible stage Irish that some people think is what an Irish accent sounds like. I mean there isn't even one "Irish" accent.