rosaw | Reading

Reminiscent of early modern Jennifer Cruisie: A single woman (size 18) (approaching forty) returns to her small Maine hometown to clean out her great-aunt's house, reconnects with her high school boyfriend, and runs afoul of a local antique dealer.

Reminiscent, only not as smooth or as charming as Cruisie's earlier work. The writing is filled with pointless detail, the banter isn't as fun as it should be, and it takes nearly half the book for something interesting to happen. I'm not sorry I read it—because they do put a crew together and there is a heist—but I could have bailed out early on and wouldn't have missed much. Also, while there is romance, this isn't a Romance as the ending is hand-wavy in a way that doesn't fit the genre, but even without the expectation of a happily ever after, I found it annoyingly vague about the logistics of the relationship.

Contains: death of a family member, though not much grief; brief mention of infertility; starts off extremely heterosexual but eventually throws in two queers; non-explicit m/f sex.

musesfool

Today's poem:

I Have News for You

There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood

and there are people who don't interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.

There are people who don't walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable

and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings

do not send their sinuous feeder roots
deep into the potting soil of others' emotional lives

as if they were greedy six-year-olds
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;

and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.

Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?
There are some people, unlike me and you,

who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as
unattainable as that moon;
thus, they do not later
have to waste more time
defaming the object of their former ardor.

Or consequently run and crucify themselves
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.

I have news for you—
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room

and open a window to let the sweet breeze in
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.

--Tony Hoagland

*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Mets vs Phillies on tv

musesfool

Monday miscellany:

- So what are the odds we get an antipope this time in addition to a pope?

- Sepinwall gave season 2 of Andor a good review (minor spoilers, I guess) - the first 3 episodes drop tomorrow and it sounds like they are doing 3 episodes a week for 4 weeks, as each one comprises a mini-arc. Trying not to get spoiled on the internet is sure to be a nightmare.

- I haven't done the AO3 stats meme regularly since 2018 because not much changes in my top 10. In 2021, however, I made note of some up-and-comers in the 11-20 slots, and it turns out that as of 4/20/25, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (i.e., the one where Dick convinces Jason to stop killing through the power of hugs) has crept into the top 10 by hits - it's number 9! (It looks like Our history is just in our blood (history, like love, is never enough) (the Steve/Bucky remix AU where Steve finds Bucky working as a barista) is the one that fell out of the top 10.)

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc also made inroads into the top 10 by kudos, landing at number 5! Additionally, 2 Star Wars stories also found their way into the top 10 by kudos: There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (in which Anakin time travels to the post-RotJ era and meets his kids) at 6, and deep as a secret nobody knows (AU where Leia tells Vader she's Padme's daughter and it changes everything) at number 8!

The 3 Avengers stories that dropped are again, Our history is just in our blood (history, like love, is never enough), plus Even a Miracle Needs a Hand (Clint/Darcy fake Christmas boyfriend), and with the lights out, it's less dangerous (Steve/Bucky, then and now).

According to these posts, I did not previously do the full list by comments, but I will note the appearance of deep as a secret nobody knows at number 3 on the comments list, and another Vader-and-Leia AU, Just a Little Bit of History Repeating, at number 10, with the VMars/Avengers crossover we travel without seatbelts on sitting pretty at number 7.

So I guess given enough time, these things CAN change.

- Today's poem:

Nothing Will Warn You
by Stephen Dunn

Nothing will warn you,
not even the promise of severe weather
or the threats of neighbors muttered
under their breath, unheard by the sonar

in you that no longer functions.
You'll be expecting blue skies, perhaps
a picnic at which you'll be anticipating
a reward for being the best handler

of raw meat in a county known
for its per capita cases of salmonella.
You'll have no memory of those women
with old grievances nor will you guess

that small bulge in one of their purses
could be a derringer. You'll be opening
a cold one, thinking this is the life,
this is the very life I've always wanted.

Nothing will warn you,
no one will blurt out that this picnic
is no picnic, the clouds in the west
will be darkly billowing toward you,

and you will not hear your neighbors'
conspiratorial whispers. You'll be
readying yourself to tell the joke
no one has ever laughed at, the joke

someone would have told you by now
is only funny if told on yourself, but no one
has ever liked you enough to say so.
Even your wife never warned you.

***

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Good Times, Bad Times = Led Zeppelin

resonant

For the New House by Ursula K. Le Guin

May this house be full of kitchen smells
and shadows and toys and nests of mice
and roars of rage and waterfalls of tears
and deep sexual silences and sounds
of mysterious origin never explained
and troves and keepsakes and a lot of junk
and a flowing like a warm wind only slower
blowing the leaves of trees and books and the fish-years
of a child’s life silvery flickering
quick, quick, in the slow incessant gust
that billows out the curtains for a moment
all those years from now, ago.
May the sills and doorframes
be in blessing blest at every passing.
May the roof but not the rooms know rain.
May the windows know clearly
the branch and flower of the apple tree.
And may you be in this house
as the music is in the instrument.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Gen. Steve the Wraith, Original male character, John Sheppard
Rating: Mature
Length: 1801
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Second person POV
Creator Links: frostfire on AO3
Theme: Outsider POV, genfic

Summary: More issues, Steve's and others'.

Reccer's Notes: This is told from the POV of a young Marine, on guard outside Steve the Wraith's cell on Atlantis. He battles with the pressure Steve puts on his mind and senses, made worse by possible unresolved issues from his past. Then Sheppard visits and comprehensively distracts the Wraith, and things change. An interesting perspective and character study, and I liked the second person POV which made it more immediate, being inside the guy's thoughts.

Fanwork Links: Predatory

cereta

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

cimorene

I finished reading The Abbot (Scott) and The Roots of the Mountains (Morris), but I haven't been able to take time to compose posts about them because I saved a ton of quotations and I really wanted to finish the sweater I've been knitting. I finished weaving in the ends today, so tomorrow I can block it.

Also the remaining Emily Wilson translations I've got are Roman plays by Seneca, not Greek tragedies, and I'm not liking them as much. Also the book is a pdf which is always a pain. I've got another William Morris reread and another Walter Scott novel set in the middle ages to read queued up, but I'm taking a break to reread the original Villeneuve Beauty and the Beast, which I've been meaning to get around to for a while, because it has hilariously elaborate fairy lore backstory but I couldn't remember the specifics.

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Chen Qing Ling, Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: Gen; M/M (background Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian); Cloud Recesses Rabbits, Lan Yi, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 432
Content Notes: Corporal Punishment (referenced); written in Russian; written for WTF Modao Zushi 2022 (fandom_Wei_Wuxian_and_Co).
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Animal Death, Crack, fairy tale, Fluff, Rabbits, WTF | Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat 2022, WTF | Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat, Don't copy to another site
Creator Links: (AO3):

kasmunaut
Theme: Outsider POV, Animals, Cultural Differences, Folklore & Fairytales

Summary: И кролики могут быть верными. (And rabbits can be true.)

Author’s Notes: АУ: дорамоверс, вансяни вынесли кроликов из пещеры. (AU: Dramaverse, Wangxian brought the rabbits out of the cave.)

Беты noface и mummi. (Betas

noface and mummi.)

Reccer's Notes: The POV character of this Russian-language fic is one of Lan Yi’s white spiritual rabbits—who, taken into the sunlit green world, suddenly has to adjust to not only a custody transfer but an alien habitat and way of life. This story alludes to the fairytales of the Snow Maiden and the rabbit who saved the Buddha, so be prepared for a similar tale of self-sacrificial devotion.

(And yes, the author addresses the question of how the rabbits subsisted in the ice cave—something a lot of Chen Qing Ling viewers had been wondering.)

Fanwork Links: Песенка льда и пламени (A Song of Ice and Fire), by

kasmunaut for WTF Modao Zushi 2022 (fandom_Wei_Wuxian_and_Co)

Current Mood: melancholy

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Daomu Biji
Pairings/Characters: F/M; Yin Xinyue/Zhang Qishan; Yin Xinyue, Zhang Qishan, Tanaka Ryoko (DMBJ Series), Wu Xie, Employee Da Wei (OC), Er Yue Hong, Zhang Qiling, Huo Xiangu, OC Narrator
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 2,028
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, monsters (see Creator Tags), canon-typical monstrous transformation, in-universe RPF, in-universe genderswitch fic
Creator Tags: Art, vintage, Digital Collage, Dubious Historical Research, Ghost Moths (DMBJ Series), Blood Zombies (DMBJ Series), Black Snake Zombies (DMBJ Series), Hei Feizi, Snakes, Hydra Cypress (DMBJ Series)
Creator Links: (AO3):

Thimblerig; (Tumblr):

thelaithlyworm
Theme: Outsider POV, Fanart, Historical Settings, In-Universe Lore, Research, Worldbuilding

Summary: So, yeah, I was rummaging through a box of photos that my gran had, and you'll never guess who was in some kind of official publicity still. Fo-ye! That guy was a looker.

I digitised it to share, and I've scrounged up a few more. I Am Engaging In History, so proud!

Author’s Notes:: // I futzed around with some screenshots and publicity stills to make them look 'vintage'. Not very deep, but hella fun.

// Images free to share, use, or remix, no credit required. (But if you do credit, please include the Pixabay source data as well.)

// Bon appetit.

Reccer's Notes: A 21st-century amateur history buff, rummaging through time-faded family scrapbooks, newspapers, magazines, and memorabilia, unearths a century’s wealth of photos, gossip, and pop culture about the great families of the Nine Gates (discovering in the process that, in Jess Nevins’ words, research is fractal.)

Fanwork Links: [ART] DMBJ Family Photos, by

thimblerig.

gwyn

Hey, if you are going to theatres to see movies these days, I can highly recommend Sinners, with Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, and Hailee Steinfeld. It's about twin brothers (played by Jordan) who return to their town in Mississippi in 1932 to open a juke joint, and run up against vampires. I'm not much of a vampire person at all, but I think this would probably satisfy both the vampire loving crowd as well as the crowd like me, because the whole first hour is mostly a slow build of who the twins are and who the people in their lives are, and what's happened to them to make them what they are (not the least of which is of course generational trauma from racism), and also background for the character who becomes central to both their story and to the vampires' story.

The music is fucking off the charts amazing (Ludwig Göransson does the soundtrack and a lot of the music stuff) and worth it alone. There are two music sequences that left me kind of gobsmacked. I've never seen anything like it.

There's definitely gore and jump scares, but overall I didn't find it too horror-y, more like a modern monster movie in terms of the violence and such. It was definitely R-rated, with some very sexual scenes. Anyways, if you were considering it, I loved it. (It was directed by Ryan Coogler of Black Panther fame.)

musesfool

I made these confetti cookies from Smitten Kitchen this afternoon (pic), but unfortunately, they are way too sweet for me. They are really easy to put together though, especially with the food processor, since you don't need to soften the butter and cream cheese before you get started, and there's no need to chill them before baking.

In other news, I watched the 3 available episodes of season 3 of Leverage: Redemption and enjoyed them, though there was some cognitive dissonance in seeing Noah Wyle as Harry Wilson after 15 intense episodes of The Pitt. Aldis Hodge gets more handsome every time I see him, and the gloves have come off in terms of the writing - they are not even playing anymore about how stuff that is legal still isn't right. Plus, there have been some fun guest stars: ( casting spoilers ) I look forward to the rest of the season!

***

I haven't posted any Neruda in a while, so here's today's poem:

Sonnet XLVI

Of all the stars I admired, drenched
in various rivers and mists,
I chose only the one I love.
Since then I sleep with the night.

Of all the waves, one wave and another wave,
green sea, green chill, branchings of green,
I chose only the one wave,
the indivisible wave of your body.

All the waterdrops, all the roots,
all the threads of light gathered to me here;
they came to me sooner or later.

I wanted your hair, all for myself.
From all the graces my homeland offered
I chose only your savage heart.

-Pablo Neruda
(Trans. ???)

***

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Mets vs Cards on tv

twistedchick

An open letter to Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, about her admission that 'everyone is afraid'.

cimorene

We went to Stentorp and petted the lambs!

Here's all the pictures on my pet photo blog

I got a sweater's worth of very soft brown finnwool too.

This is my favorite. I can't get over the expression of this lamb while Wax was petting it 😂. I want this reaction to everything:

musesfool

I decided to make the King Arthur pretzel rolls again today (well, half the recipe to make 4 hero-shaped buns) - they only require a first rise of 1 hour and a second of 15 minutes so I could start them at 3 pm and be eating by 5:30. I proofed the dough in this nice bowl I have that has its own lid, and I did it in the unheated oven with the oven light on (I've never done it like that before but I've seen it recommended a few places), and about 50 minutes in, there was a loud popping sound, and it turned out that the carbon dioxide produced by the rising dough popped the lid right off! That had never happened to me before! I figured if that was happening, the dough was proved and it was. They turned out delicious. Definitely recommended.

Here's today's poem:

Singe

I read the tops of the poems, ten or twenty lines down.

In the beginning of the book, a man is leaving his wife
for a lover. By the end, the lover is tired of the man, who wonders
if he made a mistake. The book has the quality of a diary,
the beginnings of poems imply the ends of other poems, other days,
this is a man to know in the morning.

It's raining here, where the book lives for now, and the mood
of fog fits the sadness of the book, I hold it out the window,
bring it back and dry it off with my shirt.

I know a woman who knows the poet. I call her and ask
which tops of poems are true. She wants to know why I don't
finish the poems. I tell her I dreamed last night
I work inside a steam shovel, that the tops of the poems
are my sky, my white clouds. It's impossible to talk
to just one poet, and I'll feel the ears
of people I don't know floating behind me for a week.

There are two children in the book. They must be in college by now,
married or incapable of marriage. I believe the poet was honest
about their names, I consider finding and e-mailing them,
asking if they felt betrayed or like rock stars, some other kind
of celebrity, I suddenly want to know if they play tennis
or like Pop Tarts, if either drove up to see their father
and threw the book at his head, the stab marks on the cover
making him break down and apologize for the hurt, not the poems.

Calvino had an idea for a book that appeared to have been pulled
from a fire. What wasn't there would be as much of the story
as the little bells, the indentations of eye teeth in a pencil,
the shape of wind against a sheet. The bottom of this book
is on fire, is where the lies have fallen, where someone
tells someone they were never loved, where a body is rhapsodized
as the font of renewal, and eight pages later, deplored as snare.

I devise solace for the book: we should count birds, I tell it,
should ride a horse, you and I. Some other time I'll read
the bottom only, read this life and turn each page
with both hands, carry the words in the basket of my flesh,
carry them over, carry them safe, some other time, nor was it ever
too late.

—Bob Hicok

***

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Mets vs Cards on tv

cimorene

From the hospital, that is. He got home yesterday and I spent all day expecting (in vain) my mom or sister to remember to explain the medical mysteries and the outcomes (my sister explained them today). It seems things were caused by medication errors. He missed a heart medication the day of his surgery and was on too many blood thinners, which have been adjusted now. He is still too weak to use his phone though, so I haven't heard from him in a while. Usually he is quite active in our family chat. But this is probably because he didn't get the medication he takes for tremors while he was in the hospital.

I was happily expecting to go pet the spring lambs at Stentorp today, and also buy more local untreated wool at their Easter open house. Then last night I had cramps that were the most painful I have felt in years and years. It didn't hurt as much as when I broke my elbow, but that was almost ten years ago. I do most months have cramps bad enough to curtail how much I move around in spite of taking painkillers, but usually less than a whole day's worth of them, and nothing that I have ever needed stronger painkillers for than ibuprofen. In fact in the last few years they've gotten much less severe and I have mostly been fine with 1000 mg of paracetamol (acetaminophen). I guess I've used ibuprofen instead maybe... three times in the last year, and then usually only 400 mg. Last night I took 1000 mg of paracetamol and 600 mg of ibuprofen and I was crouching over the side of the bed pressing a microwaved wheat hotpack to my belly with one hand and wolfing down buttered toast with the other (my stomach is sensitive and I never take ibuprofen without food), and then I lay there with a hot pack under my lower back and another on my lower abdomen for like... an hour, probably?

I was mentally clinging to this promised treat of petting lambs and getting wool last night, and I got up a little early today. But apparently Wax's new episode of 911 came out early this morning and she spent four hours or something trying and failing to get a copy of it and then she was so mad about bad writing and the continued absence (second week in a row) of her blorbo from the screen that she was unable to... leave her computer chair... or think about anything else... until it was too late to go today. They still have an open house tomorrow, though. We'll have to go tomorrow.

(This bad writing on 911 isn't related to the previously-mentioned fact that apparently her ship is going canon. Since last update, a press release for next season promised to continue the "will-they-won't-they" between the characters, so this seems like confirmation, but also confirmation that they won't before the end of the season. The bad writing is a pretty widespread issue, since it's a network tv primetime soap opera, and continuity, plausibility, and character development are spotty. This week's offensively bad writing is related to a ridiculously implausible medical emergency and melodramatic brush with death [two things that happen frequently], the apparent departure of one of their biggest stars and the first time a main character has departed the show. Either someone died, or it's another fakeout: he did already fake die a year ago, according to Wax, so it's repetitive either way. Seems like maybe the actor is actually leaving now? The character death, besides being silly, implausible, and repetitive of past notes, is not good writing for the character, according to Wax, who is also giving angry jaded snorts at text posts looking forward to characters dealing with "deep grief" because the show is notoriously bad at remembering to show characters grieving or, in general, experiencing psychological consequences after traumatic experiences.)

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: History
Pairings/Characters: Gen; OCs
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 2,055
Content Notes: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Supporting Character Deaths
Creator Links: (Tumblr):

gallusrostromegalus; (Dreamwidth):

gallusrostromegalus;
(Bluesky):

cryptidchicken
Theme: Outsider POV, Cultural Differences, Historical Settings, Tumblr Fic, Worldbuilding

Summary: A starving forager in the North Atlantic in the early 20th century is saved by the Heavens’ miraculous bounty.

Reccer's Notes:
I’m not gonna spoil this. Suffice to say that Gallusrostromegalus is a nature geek and a consummate storyteller with a twisted sense of humor, and every one of those attributes is on display here.

Fanwork Links: A Miracle In The Night, by

gallusrostromegalus.

starwatcher posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Old Guard
Pairings: None
Characters: Joe, OC
Rating: Gen
Length: 2,100 words
Creator Links:

watchdabirdie
Theme: Outsider POV, Family, Characters of color

Summary: There was a man in the park watching her. She had seen him before, exactly a year before. His clothing was different, and he wore a hat this time. But the dark brown of his curls was the same. The bittersweet smile framed with a well kept beard was the same. And his eyes held the same fondness in their dark depths. Najid was not scared of the man who watched her. For she knew it was not her those sad eyes lingered on. It was her son.

Reccer's Notes: Nostalgic and sweet, as Joe is cast as a small family's personal djinn. I can't say any more without spoiling it. Author recommends that you read "à la mémoire des pères" first (linked at top of story), but I think it works well without that, with the mystery unfolding slowly (but realization comes by the end).

Content Notes: None

Fanwork Links: On Sparrows Wings, by watchdabirdie at AO3

starwatcher posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Sentinel
Pairings: OC/OC
Characters: Blair Sandburg, OCs
Rating: Gen
Length: 3,400 words
Creator Links:

Dolimir
Theme: Outsider POV, Friendship, Pre-AO3 works

Summary: Blair, from a completely different set of eyes.

Reccer's Notes: This story is sweet, and gentle, and absolutely charming. It shows us how other people at the University -- specifically the secretary of the Anthro dept -- see Blair. (As might be expected, she adores him.) This story is a fave from many years ago; I hope you enjoy it.

Content Notes: None

Fanwork Links: Through Another's Eyes by Dolimir at AO3.

musesfool

Today's poem:

The Game
by Lorna Crozier

So many conversations between
the tall grass and the wind.
A child hides in that sound,
hunched small
as a rabbit, knees tucked
to her chest, head on her knees,
yet she's not asleep.

She is waiting with a patience
I had long forgotten,
hair wild with grass seeds,
skin silvery with dust.

It was my brother's game.
He was the one who counted,
and I, seven years younger,
the one who hid.

When I ran from the yard,
he found his gang of friends
and played kick-the-can
or caught soft spotted frogs
at the creek so summer-slow.

As darkness fell,
from the kitchen door
someone always called my name.
He was there before me
at the supper table;
milk in his glass
and along his upper lip
glowing like moonlight.
You're so good at that, he'd say,
I couldn't find you.

Now I wade through
hip-high bearded grass
to where she sits so still,
lay my larger hand
upon her shoulder.

Above the wind I say,
You're it,
then kneel beside her
and with the patience
that has lived so long in this body,
clean the dirt from her nose and mouth,
separate the golden speargrass from her hair.

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Homewrecked - Empires

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

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rosaw

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Page Summary

runpunkrun - Flying Solo, by Linda Holmes
musesfool - in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha
musesfool - this picnic is no picnic
resonant - Poetry month: For the New House by Ursula K. Le Guin
mific in fancake - SGA: Predatory by Frostfire
cereta - An era passes
cimorene - reading
full_metal_ox in fancake - Chen Qing Ling: Песенка льда и пламени (A Song of Ice and Fire), by kasmunaut.
full_metal_ox in fancake - Daomu Biji: [ART] DMBJ Family Photos, by Thimblerig.
gwyn - Movie rec
musesfool - the indivisible wave of your body
twistedchick - (no subject)
cimorene - Lamb-petting Easter open house at the sheep farm
musesfool - the shape of wind against a sheet
cimorene - My dad is home!
full_metal_ox in fancake - History Fic: A Miracle In The Night, by Gallusrostromegalus.
starwatcher in fancake - Old Guard: On Sparrows Wings, by watchdabirdie
starwatcher in fancake - Sentinel: Through Another's Eyes by Dolimir
musesfool - the patience that has lived so long in this body
runpunkrun in fancake - Theme Reminder: Outsider POV

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Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 03:44 pm

the songs are in your eyes

Reading

Flying Solo, by Linda Holmes

in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha

this picnic is no picnic

Poetry month: For the New House by Ursula K. Le Guin

SGA: Predatory by Frostfire

An era passes

reading

Chen Qing Ling: Песенка льда и пламени (A Song of Ice and Fire), by kasmunaut.

Daomu Biji: [ART] DMBJ Family Photos, by Thimblerig.

Movie rec

the indivisible wave of your body

(no subject)

Lamb-petting Easter open house at the sheep farm

the shape of wind against a sheet

My dad is home!

History Fic: A Miracle In The Night, by Gallusrostromegalus.

Old Guard: On Sparrows Wings, by watchdabirdie

Sentinel: Through Another's Eyes by Dolimir

the patience that has lived so long in this body

Theme Reminder: Outsider POV

Profile

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December 2016

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