Expoundings

2024 was not a great year for us for several reasons. But a few flowers sprouted out of the debris. Here are some of the good things that happened:

(1) I caught one of the final concerts of U2's residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The ticket cost me $500 including fees, but U2 is one of my favorite groups so it was worth it. (The rest of the trip was largely paid for by my employer as I was there for a trade show.) Amazing videos, great sound, and the Sphere staff does treat you well.

(2) I got to share filk circles with Urban Tapestry and Ookla the Mok both nights of FilKONtario. On Friday particularly I wound up in a small circle that was largely me, UT, Rand and Adam. Of course I enjoy singing with all of my Canadian friends and FKO regulars, but the Friday circle was a throwback to those memorable FKO's of the mid-to-late 1990's, perfectly timed to the 30th anniversary of my epic FilKONtario 4 trip.

(3) Emily, JT, Merav and I cobbled together a last-minute Songs from the Music Staff concert at Balticon to fill an unexpected hole in the schedule. I'm not sure the concert had any business working, but it did. We had fun, the audience had fun, it was actually one of the best-attended events of the music track.

(4) We made it to the Buffalo NASFiC. I gave a well-received concert, was part of a panel on The Folklore of Space, and we had a series of nice dinners with friends. A particular highlight was surprising Rand by covering "Buffalo, CA" in my set. It's something I'd been meaning to work up for years. My father and his siblings were born in Buffalo; his brother and sister both migrated to Northern California. So the first time I heard Ookla perform "Buffalo, CA" I pretty much fell out of my chair laughing.

(5) Sheryl and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. For values of "celebrated" that mainly encompassed a nice dinner at a Cooper's Hawk up the street from us and exchange of gifts. But nonetheless, a milestone and a happy occasion to mark.

(6) We had to call off traveling to Glasgow for Worldcon, but I still gave a virtual concert with at least double-digit attendance and participated in a virtual panel titled "Worldcon: The Musical!" and viewed some excellent live-streamed panels.

(7) Kicking 2024 to the curb and bringing in 2025 with two sessions of the 24-hour Friends of Filk Bytes New Year's Eve online song circle, bracketing dinner with our friends Crystal, Steve, Cat and Jason.

Here's hoping 2025 brings some better times for us, our family and our friends!

Yet another massive end-of-the-year bookpost. First time since 2020 the total number of things read increased. Among other things, I think the runs of graphic novels down there in the 30's and 50's helped.

1. Artemis, Andy Weir
2. Where the Drowned Girls Go, Seanan McGuire (novella)
3. The Sound of Stars, Alechia Dow
4. Astronauts, Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks (graphic novel)
5. Square3, Mira Grant (novella)
6. Battle of the Linguist Mages, Scotto Moore
7. Clarkesworld Magazine #196
8. Lightspeed Magazine #152
9. The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City: Spectacle and Assassination of the 1901 World’s Fair, Margaret Creighton (non-fiction)
10. Apex Magazine #135
11. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
12. The Genesis of Misery, Neon Yang
13. Clarkesworld Magazine #197
14. City of Blades, Robert Jackson Bennett
15. All Roads Lead to the Birchmere, Gary Oelze and Stephen Moore (non-fiction)
16. Lightspeed Magazine #153
17. Memory’s Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection, James S.A. Corey (collection)
18. The Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
19. Bluebird, Ciel Pierlot
20. Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan
21. The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin
22. Obsidian, Sarah J. Daley
23. Ocean’s Echo, Everina Maxwell
24. Clarkesworld Magazine #198
25. Lightspeed Magazine #154
26. Apex Magazine #136
27. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen (non-fiction)
28. The Bone Orchard, Sara A. Muller
29. The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings
30. The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz
31. The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal
32. Amongst our Weapons, Ben Aaronovitch
33. Clarkesworld Magazine #199
34. Apex Magazine #137
35. Lightspeed Magazine #155
36. Africa Risen, Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight, eds. (anthology)
37. Chemical Letters, Octavia Cade (poetry collection)
38. Captain America: Winter Soldier, Vol. 1, Ed Brubaker (author), Steve Epting, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon (artists)(graphic novel)
39. Captain America and Falcon, Vol 1., Christopher Priest (author), Bart Sears (artist)(graphic novel)
40. Captain America, Vol. 1, Ed Brubaker (author), Steve McNiven and Giuseppe Camuncoli (artists)(graphic novel)
41. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett
42. Aetherbound, E.K. Johnston
43. Give Unto Others, Donna Leon
44. Clarkesworld Magazine #200
45. Apex Magazine #138
46. Lightspeed Magazine #156
47. Tune in Tomorrow, Randee Dawn
48. In the Watchful City, S. Qiouyi Lu (novella)
49. Proof of Concept, Gwyneth Jones (novella)
50. Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers, Reginald Hudlin (author), Denys
Cowan, Klaus Janson and Pete Pantazsis (artists)(graphic novel)
51. Rivers of London: Body Work, Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel (authors), Lee Sullivan (artist)(graphic novel)
52. Rivers of London: Night Witch, Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel (authors), Lee Sullivan (artist)(graphic novel)
53. Rivers of London: Black Mould, Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel (authors), Lee Sullivan (artist)(graphic novel)
54. Rivers of London: Detective Stories, Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel (authors), Lee Sullivan (artist)(graphic novel)
55. Backpacking Through Bedlam, Seanan McGuire
56. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
57. The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went!, Seanan McGuire (novella)
58. Clarkesworld Magazine #201
59. Lightspeed Magazine #157
60. Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books, Aaron Lansky (non-fiction)
61. The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (novella)
62. Rose/House, Arkady Martine (novella)
63. The Geography of Genius, Eric Weiner (non-fiction)
64. The Sweep of Stars, Maurice Broaddus
65. Dead Country, Max Gladstone
66. Apex Magazine #139
67. Dealbreaker, L.X. Beckett
68. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
69. Clarkesworld Magazine #202
70. Lightspeed Magazine #158
71. In the Serpent’s Wake, Rachel Hartman
72. Station Eternity, Mur Lafferty
73. Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree
74. Traveling Music, Neil Peart (non-fiction)
75. Meru, S.B. Divya
76. Clarkesworld Magazine #203
77. Lightspeed Magazine #159
78. Storming the Gates of Paradise, Rebecca Solnit (non-fiction)
79. A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett
80. Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir, Wil Wheaton (non-fiction)
81. Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher
82. Clarkesworld Magazine #204
83. Lightspeed Magazine #160
84. Apex Magazine #140
85. Clarkesworld Magazine #205
86. Lightspeed Magazine #161
87. Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly
88. Zion’s Fiction, Teitelbaum and Gottem, editors (collection)
89. Thud!, Terry Pratchett
90. Starbreak, Phoebe North
91. The Book of Gems, Fran Wilde (novella)
92. Clarkesworld Magazine #206
93. Sleep No More, Seanan McGuire
94. Candles and Starlight, Seanan McGuire (novella)
95. Lightspeed Magazine #162
96. Starter Villian, John Scalzi
97. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, Meg Lord
98. Wild Massive, Scotto Moore
99. Clarkesworld Magazine #207
100. Lightspeed Magazine #163
101. The Fragile Threads of Power, V.E. Schwab

Three especially notable reads in there, at least to me. The Creighton book at #9, besides hinting at my occasional obsession with World's Fairs (despite only having attended Knoxville's in 1982), is notable because my father grew up in the residential neighborhood that eventually filled the Pan-American Exposition site. The Lansky book at #60 is essentially about the founding of the Yiddish Book Center, a facility of particular note to a few of my readers (*grin*). Finally, if you've heard me cover folksinger Mike Campbell's "Iditarod" about genetically-engineered sled dogs, you'll understand why I especially enjoyed Meg Lord's book at #97.

And with that, the breakdown:
Novels: 41
Novellas: 9
Non-Fiction: 8
Anthologies/Collections: 4
Graphic Novels: 9
Magazines: 30

Since I totally, utterly and completely failed to keep up with bookposts this year, you get the whole list in one post. If anything looks interesting, leave a comment and I'll try and reply with my thoughts.

1. The Eagle Has Landed, Neil Clarke, ed.
2. A Mencken Chrestomathy, H. L. Mencken
3. Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse
4. Clarkesworld Magazine #172 (January 2021)
5. Lightspeed Magazine #128 (January 2021)
6. Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne
7. The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi
8. Apex Magazine #121 (January 2021)
9. Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East, Rabbi Marvin Tokayer and Ellen Rodman, Ph.D
10. The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune
11. A Song Below Water, Bethany C. Morrow
12. Across the Green Grass Fields, Seanan McGuire (novella)
13. Falling in Love with Hominids, Nalo Hopkinson (collection)
14. Remote Control, Nnedi Okorafor (novella)
15. Pyramids, Terry Pratchett
16. Finna, Nino Cipri (novella)
17. Clarkesworld Magazine #173 (February 2020)
18. Lightspeed Magazine #129 (February 2020)
19. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
20. Ghost-Spider Vol 1: Dog Days Are Over, Seanan McGuire (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist)(graphic novel)
21. Ghost-Spider Vol 2: Party People, Seanan McGuire (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist) (graphic novel)
22. Reaching for the Moon, Katherine Johnson (non-fiction)
23. Avatars, Inc., Ann Vandermeer, editor (anthology)
24. Monstress, Vol. 5: Warchild, Marjorie Liu (writer), Sana Takeda (artist)(graphic novel)
25. The Old Guard, Vol. 1: Opening Fire, Greg Rucka (writer), Leandro Fernandez (artist) (graphic novel)
26. The Old Guard, Vol. 2: Force Multiplied, Greg Rucka (writer), Leandro Fernandez (artist) (graphic novel)
27. The Factory Witches of Lowell, C.S. Malerich (novella)
28. Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (novella)
29. Last Stand in Lychford, Paul Cornell (novella)
30. Mother of Invention, Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts, editors (anthology)
31. The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
32. Apex Magazine #122 (March 2020)
33. Clarkesworld Magazine #174 (March 2020)
34. Lightspeed Magazine #130 (March 2020)
35. Mermaids Monthly #1
36. Mermaids Monthly #2
37. The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson
38. Calculated Risks, Seanan McGuire
39. Singing the Comic-Con Blues, Seanan McGuire (novella)
40. Clarkesworld Magazine #175 (April 2020)
41. Lightspeed Magazine #131 (April 2020)
42. A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine
43. The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
44. The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York, Peter Tomasi (writer), Teo DuVall (artist)
45. Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-fi Exploded, Jason Heller
46. Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling, Monica L. Valentinelli and Jaym Gates (anthology)
47. All Hail Our Robot Conquerors! Joshua Palmatier, editor (anthology)
48. Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo
49. Dying With Her Cheer Pants On, Seanan McGuire (collection)
50. Engines of Oblivion, Karen Osborne
51. Eric, Terry Pratchett
52. Apex Magazine #123 (May 2020)
53. Clarkesworld Magazine #176 (May 2020)
54. Lightspeed Magazine #132 (May 2020)
55. Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley
56. Were-, Joshua Palmatier, editor (anthology)
57. The Wizardry of Jewish Women, Gillian Polack
58. The Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler
59. Colonyside, Michael Mammay
60. Clarkesworld Magazine #177 (June 2020)
61. Silver in the Wood, Emily Tesh (novella)
62. The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (novella)
63. Moving Pictures, Terry Pratchett
64. Lightspeed Magazine #133 (June 2020)
65. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, Lynell George (non-fiction)
66. The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood (excerpt)
67. Vanished Birds, Simon Jiminez (excerpt)
68. Goldilocks, Laura Lam
69. What Abigail Did That Summer, Ben Aaronovitch (novella)
70. Siege and Storm, Leigh Bardugo
71. Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo
72. Shadow of Victory, David Weber
73. Clarkesworld Magazine #178 (July 2021)
74. Lightspeed Magazine #134 (July 2021)
75. Apex Magazine #124 (July 2021)
76. Invisible Kingdom, Vol 2: Edge of Everything, G. Willow Wilson (author), Christian Ward (artist)(graphic novel)
77. Once & Future Vol. 1: The King Is Undead, Kieron Gillen (author), Dan Mora (artist)(graphic novel)
78. Ash Kickers, Sean Grigsby
79. FIYAH Literary Magazine #15
80. FIYAH Literary Magazine #16
81. FIYAH Literary Magazine #17
82. FIYAH Literary Magazine #18
83. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
84. Unto Us a Son is Given, Donna Leon
85. Clarkesworld Magazine #179 (August 2021)
86. Lightspeed Magazine #135 (August 2021)
87. Strange Horizons – 2021 Hugo Packet (sampler)
88. Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (excerpt)
89. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
90. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
91. Apex Magazine #125 (September 2021)
92. Clarkesworld Magazine #180 (September 2021)
93. Lightspeed Magazine #136 (September 2021)
94. Floodwood, Pete Kennedy
95. When Sorrows Come, Seanan McGuire
96. And With Reveling, Seanan McGuire (novella)
97. The Galaxy and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers
98. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher
99. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
100. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
101. Clarkesworld Magazine #181 (October 2021)
102. Lightspeed Magazine #137 (October 2021)
103. Apex Magazine #126 (October 2021)
104. We Are Satellites, Sarah Pinsker
105. The New Voices of Science Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman (anthology)
106. Legendborn, Tracy Deonn
107. Escape Pod – 2021 Hugo Award Voter Packet (collection)
108. PodCastle – 2021 Hugo Award Voter Packet (collection)
109. Fables Vol. 18: Cubs in Toyland, Bill Willingham (author), Mark Buckingham and Gene Ha (illustrators)(graphic novel)
110. Fables Vol. 19: Snow White, Bill Willingham (author), Mark Buckingham and Gene Ha (illustrators)(graphic novel)
111. Clarkesworld Magazine #182 (November 2021)
112. Lightspeed Magazine #138 (November 2021)
113. Apex Magazine #127 (November 2021)
114. Trace Elements, Donna Leon
115. Hawking, Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick (graphic novel)
116. Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett
117. Null Set, S.L. Huang
118. Submerged, S.C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier, editors (anthology)
119. Clarkesworld Magazine #183 (December 2021)
120. Lightspeed Magazine #139 (December 2021)

And here's the summary for the year. Drop of 13 items from last year, driven largely by my reading 10 fewer novels.

Total Reads: 120
Novels: 37
Novellas: 12
Non-Fiction: 4
Anthologies/Collections: 14
Graphic Novels: 12
Magazines: 31
Excerpts: 11

Got my first dose of Pfizer's Pfinest this afternoon!

And that's a HUGE sense of relief since I feel like I'm just about the last adult in my social circle to get vaccinated. Not because I have any hesitation about vaccines, it's simply been that (a) as a 52-year old with no comorbidities who is a nonessential worker who can work from home I'm in the last priority group, and (b) since I live in the most liberal county in a generally liberal state EVERYONE wants to get vaccinated so there are several million people to get through.

That being said, I lucked out since I happened to discover the preregistration link for the last priority group was live a few days before our County Executive announced it. And managed to snag an appointment at the closest mass vaccination center to me, just up the road in Germantown.

Of course every shoulder a vaccine goes in is a good thing and I shouldn't begrudge my friends for gaining the protection. But watching folks younger than me - in one case about 30 years younger - was making me antsy!

Now just gotta wait three more weeks for dose #2!

Almost certainly not the only person to head off an end-of-2020 post that way...

So if you'd predicted at the start of 2020 we'd suffer a pandemic in the middle of a hotly-contested presidential election, with economic woes, wildfires, hurricanes, civil unrest (including the military sicced on US citizens), and a host of other disasters, I'd have accused you of plagiarizing Mira Grant.

Add to that losing Abby Cinii, Naomi Pardue, Bob Laurent and Lindy (Sears) Laurent. And Neil Peart, John Prine, Adam Schlesinger, Kenny Rogers, Gene Shay, Bob Shane, Micca Patterson(*), Edmund Thomas(**), Eddie Van Halen, and so many other fine musicians across a variety of genres. Too many of them from COVID-19.

Add to that dealing with the Shmoo's challenges. Virtual learning has been hard for many, but especially tough on kids with attention and executive functioning issues. Plus until July we'd had difficulty finding a good (and less expensive) nanny for the Shmoo. And due to the pandemic a lot of places it would have been fun to take a kid were closed for a while. Even playgrounds and pools were off limit until partway through the summer.

On the flip side, in many ways we've been extremely lucky. As I noted in my Thanksgiving Post, we maintained our jobs, me working from home almost 100% since March, my wife generally working from home one day a week and otherwise in her lab at NIH. (Because you can't really set up a blood processing lab in your basement. Or at least, shouldn't.) Plus we received some assistance from our parents with nanny and school costs. And even though the special needs private school we enrolled him in has been largely virtual, he's made some progress. (And there was a glorious period in October and early November when they were actually in-person 2 or 3 days a week.)

Counting cons and folk events for the year is an interesting exercise. We can say we attended one con (Boskone), one folk event (FSGW Mini-Fest) and one concert (Beth Patterson). Or we can count all the virtual conventions (Heliosphere, FK-No, Balticon, NEWhere, C'momfluence the Musical, NASFiC, nOVFF, Philcon and Chessiecon), Festivals of the Living Rooms, filk circles (MASSFILC, Eurofilk, Filk Bytes and Friends of Filk) and livestreamed concerts (including several Heather Dale and S.J. Tucker concerts, a Tom Paxton concert, a David Buskin concert, and the majority of Pete and Maura Kennedy's weekly livestreams). And the virtual FSGW Getaway. And even the virtual Philadelphia Folk Festival. Which I've already noted is the silver lining on the year...given the challenges presented by the Shmoo, I've probably seen more of the virtual cons I attended and streamed more concerts than I would have seen in person. Plus the benefits of seeing friends and favorite performers from the other side of the country and across the pond, without having to jump on a plane for 6 or 7 hours.

Like everybody else, I am definitely hoping for a better 2021, even if I'm not likely to get vaccinated until the summer. (At least...could be a few years based on how the rollout is going.) Early 50's, no known co-morbidities, currently able to work from home...depending on whose guidelines you look at I'm pretty much towards the back of the line.

(*) A wicked parodist from the UK who was active in the traditional folk community, hung out in the Mudcat Cafe and came to the FSGW Getaway several times.
(**) Another Mudcatter and Getaway regular from Ottowa and London, Ontario.

Well, despite everything 2020 has thrown at us somehow we seem to have just about made it to the end of November. Thanksgiving dinner was the three of us at home plus my mom via Zoom. (I also Zoomed with my dad and stepmom earlier in the day while outside with the Shmoo.) Dinner itself was turkey breast, sweet potato mash, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie courtesy of Dawson's Market, preordered and heated up in the oven.

In no particular order, a few things we're thankful for:

• Employment. Luckily, my job can be done entirely from home, and Sheryl works in a lab at NIH and is an essential employee. Now if only I had a few fewer conference calls per week...


• Health. To date I am not aware of anyone in my family - or any close friends - who've gotten Covid-19. It probably helps that virtually all of my family and social circle (AFAIK) actually believes in science and taking reasonable precautions to protect themselves and others.


• The Internet. Discord, Zoom, Dreamwidth, YouTube, Twitch, Online Concert Thing, and all the other ways to keep in touch electronically, hold virtual cons, stream live concerts, etc. In fact, being able to watch a concert without having to worry about whether my son's cavorting is disturbing others (and being able to do so on my phone while the Shmoo runs around outside) has been a silver lining. I've probably made more programming for some of the virtual cons than I would have in-person.


• Private schools for special needs. We have several in our area catering to kids with autism, ADHD, and other learning or behavioral challenges and got the Shmoo into one. Even though our county has a better-than-average special needs program, having him in a class of 6 is much better than a class of 25. And after a September of virtual learning, his school even managed seven weeks of a hybrid schedule with 2-3 in-person days before the rising case counts knocked things back to all-virtual.


• Modern medical science. With three promising vaccine candidates - and some potential theraputics - there's a light at the end of the tunnel that isn't just an oncoming train. Still think we'll be doing virtual cons until at least the summer, but there's hope we'll see each other in person before 2021 is out

Hope y'all were able to make the best of a strange Thanksgiving. See you at the next virtual con or circle, and looking forwawrd to when we can meet in person again!

How did it get to be November 1st already? And why can't I get bookposts up sooner? Short list for September.

92. Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
93. All Systems Red, Martha Wells (novella)(reread)
94. Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
95. Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (novella)(reread)
96. Clarkesworld Magazine #167 (September 2020)
97. The Whiskey Rebels, David Liss

Swamplandia! is a darkly-comic novel about the fall of a fake-Native-American-family-owned alligator attraction in the Everglades. It had its moments, but I'm not sure what about the Washington Post book review years ago tempted me to put this on my wish list.

Equal Rites, as many of my readers know, brings the first appearance of Granny Weatherwax, mentoring a young girl who's managed to inherit a wizard's staff and powers. There were parts of Esk's journey that reminded me of the recent Stargirl TV series.

The Whiskey Rebels is a historical fantasy set in the early years of the United States, during the run-up to the Panic of 1792 and the Whiskey Rebellion. And I have to say, timing can be everything reading a book. The Whiskey Rebels was published in 2008, probably ended up on my TBR bookshelf somewhere in 2014 or 2015, and just now got read. Now, I'm a fan of Liss' historical fiction, so I likely would have enjoyed the book whenever I read it. However, the book includes several real-life characters, most notably Alexander Hamilton. As some of my readers may know, there was a musical that came out a few years ago based on the life of Alexander Hamilton which I hear gained some note, perhaps you've heard about it. So I had a whole new perspective reading The Whiskey Rebels than I would have before. (And a few songs running through my head...)

The other notable reads for the month were the first two entries in the Murderbot Diaries, reread in preparation for diving into Network Effect.

Today was the Shmoo's first day of (virtual) kindergarten. It went about as well as I expected. Which is to say, we could get him to pay attention when things were somewhat interactive, not so much when he just had to sit and listen. And that was with a break every half-hour.

Still, hard to believe the little guy has reached school age. I found myself musing over this lost summer (devoid of any of our usual major summer activities - at least in person) and trying to remember another equivalent summer. The next closest is probably 2015 where everything on our calendar from mid-July through early September was wiped out. But that was due to the Shmoo's arrival, so it was for happy reasons. So I was reminded about how much joy we shared with our friends that summer. (And of course had gotten Concertino and a Rush concert squeezed in.) Already five years have gone by!

We'll see what the rest of the week brings. I can't say I didn't expect the transition would be a challenge...

And the rest of the Hugo sprint, mostly the fanzines, semiprozines and Astounding Award nominees. Then transitioning back to my regularly scheduled TBR stacks.

64. Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri (excerpt)
65. Journey Planet #45, #46, #47, #48
66. Fireside Magazine – 2020 Hugo Packet Sampler
67. FIYAH Magazine – 2020 Hugo Packet Sampler
68. The Flowers of Vashnoi, Lois McMaster Bujold (novella)
69. Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker (author) and Wendy Xu (artist)(graphic novel)
70. Strange Horizon – 2020 Hugo Packet Sampler
71. Gravity of a Distant Sun, R.E. Stearns
72. City of Lies, Sam Hawke
73. False Value, Ben Aaronovitch
74. Lightspeed Magazine #121 (June 2020)
75. Clarkesworld Magazine #165 (July 2020)
76. Lightspeed Magazine #166(July 2020)
77. The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett

What's notable in there? Well first there's finally getting around to The Flowers of Vashnoi, where Ekaterin and Enrique discover Vorkosigan Vashnoi isn't quite the lifeless radioactive wasteland it's supposed to be. It's always a fun time when Vorkosigans are involved.

Next we have Gravity of a Distant Sun, wrapping up the Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy in satisfying fashion. Adda and Iridian's only hope to escape the murderous AI's and authorities on their trail is to hop a ride across an interstellar bridge to another galaxy. Lots of action, lots of twists.

City of Lies was this year's pleasant surprise among the Hugo and/or Astounding nominees I hadn't read. After the Chancellor of Silasta is poisoned, two young nobles and siblings must defend the city-state from enemies within and a besieging army without. This sort of second-world fantasy is the kind of book I'd normally skip over, but has the sort of richly-detailed setting and city-as-character that I enjoy in a book.

False Value is the latest Peter Grant book. Grant takes on the tech industry, going undercover as security for a startup whose owner may be building a device whose roots harken back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. If that isn't enough, he's about to become a father. Of course, the usual architectural snark abounds, plus some great scenes with Grant and Guleed.

Last but certainly not least, courtesy of yet another Tor.com reread I finally have an excuse to read the many Discworld books I haven't gotten to. (I've read all the Moist Von Lipwig books, all the Witches/Lancre books, half the City Watch books, Soul Music and Interesting Times.) So here we have The Color of Magic, our introduction to Great A'Tuin and the Disc, Rincewind, and the Luggage, among others.

Late as usual. Can I claim distraction on account of cramming Hugo finalists into my brain until it exploded?

52. Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, J. Michael Straczynski (non-fiction)
53. The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O’Meara (non-fiction)
54. The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley
55. Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (graphic novel)
56. Joanna Russ Gwyneth Jones (non-fiction, excerpt)
57. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (novella)
58. Exhalation, Ted Chiang (collection)
59. The Deep, by Rivers Solomon (novella)
60. The Gameshouse, Catherine North
61. The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
62. Clarkesworld Magazine #164 (June 2020)
63. The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (non-fiction)

The standouts in this list were the first two items, both Best Related Work nominees. Reading Becoming Superman, one can't help be amazed at how JMS managed to survive an awful childhood under a toxic, abusive father, grow up and become any sort of a functional human being. Then, as you follow his television career, it becomes amusing seeing names like John Copeland and Douglas Netter recognizable to any Babylon 5 fan pop up. (I am also reminded I have several volumes of his Spiderman run in my Comixology queue.)

While Becoming Superman was a sometimes-difficult yet informative read, The Lady from the Black Lagoon goes down as one of my favorite books of 2020. If nothing else, simply learning about Milicent Patrick, whose claims to fame included designing the costume for the Creature from the Black Lagoon, would have been fascinating and timely. Then add reading about O'Meara's own experiences as an independent producer in Hollywood and following her journey in uncovering Patrick's story and helping bring her the credit she is due. Together those would have been enough to make it a four-star read for me.

But then I discovered her father (another prime example of toxic masculinity) was Camillo Rossi, a structural engineer who worked in California and Mexico in the early 1900's. His main claim to fame was spending 11 years working under architect Julia Morgan (the first woman to become a licensed architect in California) on Hearst Castle. Well then. Now this book is right up my alley. And I have visited Hearst Castle, stopping there during my swing through California for LACon III in 1996. That, my friends, puts The Lady from the Black Lagoon in five-star territory.