SPIKE: You lookin' for me?
BUFFY: Really not.
SPIKE: Oh. Right then. Off you go. Did you cry?
BUFFY: What?
SPIKE: The wedding. Two hearts joined for eternity, great pelting showers of rice and so forth.
BUFFY: You didn't hear.
SPIKE: What? Families get out of hand? Tear the place apart?
BUFFY: No. Well, yes, absolutely. But... Xander left. The wedding didn't happen.
SPIKE: Well. Gotta say... I didn't see that coming. (sits on a bench)
BUFFY: It was awful. (sits nearby) Anya was devastated.
SPIKE: Is that right.
BUFFY: And, Xander... thinks maybe they can still get back together, but... he hurt her a lot.
SPIKE: Yeah, well... some people can't see a good thing when they've got it.
there are enzyme sprays that deactivate some shit in dust mites/dust mite shit so it sucks less for allergies right? anyone know which ones are decent or how to look for some? I plan on vacuuming/swiffering too but this involves stuff where I might not be able to get all the dust.
accidentally got the scented swiffers too. having a time
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thank you, this is perfect!
this post is such an incredible example of why patient support groups are so fucking important. why sick people talking to each other is so important. this blog is not a patient support group or anything but so many people in the notes have allergies and/or MCAS and had no idea this type of product existed at all. and if you have no idea a type of thing exists how the fuck are you supposed to find it?
with the internet, none of us are alone. we need to take more advantage of that at every opportunity. every single person has something new and important they can learn from someone else.
@thebibliosphere don’t know if you’ve come across this before but it seems up your alley. I’m reading up on it currently because of a friend with nasty allergies
I have yeah, unfortunately as someone with MCAS, I reacted to the spray. There was a scent to it that I wasn’t expecting and it caught in my throat.
It wasnt as bad a reaction as my actual dustmite allergy, but if I’m traveling and it gets used, I ventilate the space and wear a mask until it dries just to be safe.
Theme Prompt: #274 – Near-Death Experience Title: An Awful Introduction Fandom: Star Wars Rogue One Rating/Warnings: PG-13 Bonus: Yes Word Count: 586 Summary: Stordan thinks dying should be less of a surprise.
Somehow I always go for long stretches without much to say about media and then finished several things at once, and suddenly its time to post here again.
Dominion and Devotion—Instead of watching any of the dramas I’ve already started I watched this mini drama (24 15 min episodes). I’ve had mixed luck with mini dramas but I enjoyed this one! It’s a crossdressing girl drama with enemies to lovers and political intrigue! The premise is that the FL has been raised from birth to pretend to be a young weak prince, in the hopes of someday escaping the palace. But instead she gets picked to be the puppet emperor.
The “AFAB person was raised as a boy for Reasons” variety of crossdressing girl stories really have a different vibe than the crossdressing girl adventures I grew up with, there’s just less of a sense of agency when the FL didn’t get to choose to crossdress.
Spoilers I was not expecting the tragic ending thought! I thought it would somehow turn out ok up until the last moment.
Content Notes: Child death, corporal punishment (children and adults), torture (presented as righteous), blood
Wow the Worldep 1-4—Yes, I’m watching yet another Chinese reality show featuring Liu Yuning. This travel show where a group of people visit a bunch of cities near the 40th parallel. It’s pretty charming! I love that there's a little cartoon planet that represents each person. I would prefer a bit more focus on the tourism – tell us more about these places, and describe the food please!
Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China by Stephen R. Bokenkamp—This was a super interesting book about Daoist ideas about the afterlife and how they evolved after contact with Buddhism. I kinda wish I had read this before finalizing my translation of the about Wei Huacun because she’s mentioned in this and there’s a bunch of useful context about early Daoist practice.
Dragon Steel by Laurence Yep—The second book in this series which I’m reading to the kid. Still holds up well, I enjoyed the under sea dragon kingdom which was one of the bits that stuck with me from my first reading. This one does have some fatphobia though, which I didn’t enjoy.
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh—I tried so hard with this book! Well maybe that’s not strictly true because at first I wasn’t going to read it because I didn’t really like the one thing by Emily Tesh I had read before (Silver in the Wood) but then I found out more about the premise – a teacher a magical school who actually has to do paperwork, so I decided to give it a go.
I loved the first third of this book with its teaching and risk assessment and a big climatic battle that could be the end of a different book. Saving the world part way through and then having to live with the consequences would make for an interesting book, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here. Instead we introduced a new very annoying character.
I was considering DNFing at that point but I asked some friends if he went away and they said that I could expect less of him, so I kept reading. And there was a lot less of him for a bit, but another thing started frustrating me: the story was providing big clues about something that the main character was not figuring out. I really don’t enjoy that kind of reader character knowledge mismatch! That’s been resolved now but I didn’t feel motivated to keep reading after that.
I really wanted to like this book because teaching at a magical school is a cool concept, and so many of my friends loved it but after the first third I found it pretty frustrating.
Theme Prompt: #274 – Near-Death Experience Title: Too Much Blood Fandom: Torchwood Rating/Warnings: PG-13 / A lot of blood. Bonus: Yes Word Count: 1000 Summary: Ianto gets badly injured while hunting down a dangerous alien. Will he survive?
Today was a LOW-shopping day. *g* I hit the Pharmacy while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I filled my gas tank and dropped a book off at the library on the way to mom’s.
I did a load of laundry (washed, dried AND folded), hand-washed dishes, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, scooped kitty litter, paid some bills online, and showered. *whispers* I picked up more bbq chicken quarters for supper. Sunnycrest was having a Harvest Fest, and bbq chicken and pulled pork was part of that. The dinners were disappointing, but a night of not having to cook supper is still a win for me!
I read more fanfic and watched some HGTV programs.
Temps started out at 60.6(F) and reached 72.1. I had no idea it was going to be so warm in the morning! We were actually warm sleeping overnight because we’d planned for another 45 degree night.
Mom Update:
Mom was doing well today, which was a surprise after yesterday’s exhausting afternoon. ( more back here )
watching this virtual tour of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and general history of Chicago’s water and sewage management
So back in the day, I scoffed at the idea that Chicago could have anything similar to a Neverwhere style-Chicago Below, because quite frankly Chicago is flat. Outside of some subway stations or old tunnels, surely there’s nothing below us but dirt, limestone and the water table.
This video is great at demonstrating that actually? There is.
In the 1970s, Chicago created the tunnel and reservoir plan and specifically the “Deep Tunnels” which exist specifically to capture any rainwater or overflow until the MWRD can handle it. So if there’s a horrific rainstorm, it doesn’t necessarily go to the overwhelmed processing plant, but instead is diverted into these gigantic tunnels, where it’s pumped into enormous drainage ponds with solar-powered aeration devices. They can hold something like 17 billion gallons of water, for however long Chicago needs them to.
Also, have a fun shot of the tunnel boring machine they used to excavate these tunnels back in the 1980s—it’s basically one of those worms from Dune, but mechanical:
It’s kind of funny whenever I bring up the new age cult shit, because a lot of people assume, based on my very science and research based approach to raising awareness of MCAS, that I am now an atheist or completely devoid of any kind of spirituality.
When in reality I’m still a very deeply spiritual person who practices what many people would deem to be witchcraft as a form of spiritual expression. I just don’t have unquestioning faith, which is what was expected of me as a kid, and drove so many people in my early years nuts because I refused to accept, “because I say so,” as a valid answer.
(God bless my ADHD and the likely ODD that came with it. Oh, you’re an authority figure in my life and you’re demanding total compliance? Give me a valid reason that makes sense and I’ll consider it. You can’t? Fuck you, lmao.)
Honestly, the closest way I can describe the way I view it, is like Discworld witchcraft. Never attribute to the magical what can readily be explained by the mundane and always take care of people first.
Like yeah, sure, you can tell me your house is haunted and you want a witch to come deal with it, but if you call me, the first thing I’m going to do is call the fire department to make sure there’s not a carbon monoxide leak.
I’ll bring my dried rosemary and crystals if you want, but I’m also going to show up with a radon meter and a respirator mask.
You’re beset by visions and ‘seeing auras’ all of a sudden? Take my hand, bestie. We’re going to the emergency room to get a CAT scan <3
Fun conversation with a friend on whatsapp this morning. She was showing off the vintage crystal goblets she thrifted and said something about using them to drink out of and I said, “how vintage?” as in, does this vintage crystal have lead in it?
And she said her mother in law told her lead poisoning is a myth to force the agenda of modern consumerism, so now I’m presenting a TED talk via the whatsapp groupchat because no, absolutely the fuck not.
Honestly Joy all power to you but that is one of those responses that would have ended the friendship. Like, not only is this a common knowledge thing because it was such a health hazard but how was there not a cognitive dissonance moment over “removing unnecessary metal from stuff” to “modern consumerism”? Like, did she not ask her MIL how removing lead caused modern consumerism? She just heard an absolutely batshit combination of words and decided they must be true?
Sorry, that’s too baby nazi coded for me to not walk away from.
I say this with all my love, but she’s honestly too trusting. You can send her to the hardware store for a tin of tartan paint and she’ll do it.
She also grew up in a similar environment to me (new age cult shit, avoid medicine, positive vibes only, eat a crystal) so if someone says something with great authority and shows sources (even if those sources are Facebook) she’s inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. To her benefit, she knows she believes things too easily, and she tends to message me a lot to be like, hey, is this bonkers or legit? And tbh, after I talked to her for a while today, she was like, yeah, actually I was going to bring this up to you because it didn’t sound right because like, lead is fucking lead, right? –she just didn’t think it would happen in that moment in relation to the very old drink ware she’d just acquired.
Which as it turns out is now going to be purely decorative because she found a crack in it! Problem solved.
So like, yeah, you’re right. It’s cult shit. But that’s also the insane shit we grew up being told, so when people say things like this to me, and I am engaging with them directly, I try to meet it with patience and education, because I know that’s what it takes to break and prevent indoctrination.
You’ll never see me being nasty to Mormons of JW’s when they come knocking because they’re being told the world outside the cult hates them, and when you’re mean to them, it just reinforces the idea that the only people who care for them are the cult.
It’s the same in new age circles. You’re trained not to think for yourself. And some people can’t fully escape that mindset and remain vulnerable. My friend is one of them. But she always knows she can come to me with the outlandish things she either stumbles upon or stumbles into and run it past me for a reality check.
Is it sometimes exasperating and frustrating? Yes. Is it worth it? For me, yeah. That’s someone I care about and someone who’s experience I understand because I was also abused the same way.
Are there other people I have walked away from because they were in too deep and being around them were harmful to me? For sure. I’ve burned so many MAGA bridges back home right now because I cannot get through to them and my time and energy is better spent defending and caring for the vulnerable people in my community rather than burning myself out arguing with them.
After a lot of dithering, I finally got my Yuletide nominations in, and added them to the nominations coordination spreadsheet and post on yuletide. My approach this year was to nominate things I'd be both happy to write and receive: a mixture of perennial unfilled requests, old favourites to which I love to return, and fandoms I'm looking to request with a slightly changed batch of characters from those I've requested and received in the past.
I've generally had a really excellent time in every year in which I've participated: I've loved pretty much every gift I've received (some remain some of the best pieces of fanfic I've ever read, in any fandom), in general what I write is well received, and it reliably remains the one exchange whose focus tends to play to my strengths (such as they are) and interests as a writer, and result in the type of fic that I most enjoy reading.
So, consider today's open thread post the opportunity to talk about Yuletide. Are you participating this year? How long have you been participating? What is your approach to nominating (a mixture of things you want to write and receive? more emphasis on one or the other?)? What are you hoping to see in the tagset? What do you think will end up being the unexpected 'big for Yuletide' fandom? How has your experience of the exchange been over the years? Or talk about anything else you can think of that's relevant to Yuletide!
Buckle up, because I’m doing the books on sale post today, and it’s always chaotic when my scattered brain tries to remember things in order the way Amanda’s does.
Rules for Ruin
Rules for Ruin, the first book in Mimi Matthews’ The Crinoline Academy series, is $1.99! Lara reviewed this book and gave it an A (!!) saying, “This is my first Bad Decisions Book Club of 2025. Sleep became a distant memory with this book. For context, I have a newborn. I had the opportunity to sleep, but chose not to because this book was much more important.”
She gave up sleep, y’all. The second book, The Marriage Method, will be out on November 25. If you know you’ll want it, a heads up that this is the week of Thanksgiving, so preordering means SURPRISE BOOK when you might be super duper busy and maaaaybe ready to not talk to people for a bit.
No one betrays the Academy. But now Euphemia must break the rules for her enemy, or let the rules break her heart.
On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful politician’s systematic attack on women’s rights, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom.
But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats.
From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.
Shatter Me: The Six Novel Collection by Tehereh Mafi is .99c at Amazon (and $19.99 elsewhere). This collection contains the entire series: Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, Restore Me, Defy Me, and Imagine Me. That is a LOT of books.
Lara recommended the first book in a post-apocalyptic Rec League in 2021, saying, “Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series is YA dystopia (revolution, war/climate devastation, military rule and dominance) with an extremely intense romance at its heart, although the heroine does not end up with her first crush.”
Have you read this series?
Juliette can kill with a touch—will she wield her power for good, or will it turn her into the monster she’s always feared she truly is? Find out in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series—all six novels are now available in this digital collection!
One touch is all it takes. One touch, and Juliette Ferrars can bring a grown man to his knees, begging for mercy. One touch, and she can kill.
No one knows why Juliette has such incredible power. It feels like a curse, like too great a burden for one person alone to bear. But The Reestablishment sees her as an opportunity. As a deadly weapon. And they’ll stop at nothing to shape her into what they want.
Juliette has never fought for herself before. But when she’s reunited with the one person who ever cared about her, she finds a strength she never knew she had.
This bestselling series from powerhouse author Tahereh Mafi showcases relentlessly thrilling action, heart stopping romance, and a war-torn world in which rebellion is the only path to freedom.
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is $1.99! This may be to coincide with the paperback release. Many reviewers describe this as a “book club book” which is some delightful inception marketing in my brain now: How to Read a Book is a book club book. And now the word “book” has lost its meaning.
Anyway, this book as a 4.26 (!!) star average on GoodReads, and readers describe it as emotional and hopeful on Storygraph. One reviewer on Kobo cautions that while they liked the heroine, they didn’t like that the pastor is a “judgmental pervert” and that the church people were “judgmental and unforgiving.” This reader didn’t like the book for that reason, but that would be a reason for me to read it faster. Another review says there are talking parrots, so this seems like a mixed bag. Have you read this book?
Do you know how to read How to Read a Book, a book that is for book clubs? (Ok, I’ll stop.)
National Bestseller * From the award-winning author of The One-in-a-Million Boy comes a heartfelt, uplifting novel about a chance encounter at a bookstore, exploring redemption, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.
Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…
Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher.
Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest.
Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.
When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.
How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.
The Second Chance Book Club by Stephanie Butland is .99! I wonder if the Second Chance Book Club is as much of a book club book as How to Read a Book?
Hey, where are you going?
This book has a 4.4 star average on Goodreads, and 4.23 on Storygraph, and is about a woman named September who inherits a somewhat disheveled mansion, some money, and, along with it, a book club. Reviewers state that there are many references to other books, and that it’s very sweet and cozy.
Have you read this book? About book clubs?
Ok, I’m done now.
A heart-warming story about how a letter with surprising news changes everything – from the author of the beloved Found in a Bookshop
‘Compelling, eye-opening and heart-stirring, this book is unputdownable’ Katie Fforde
‘A warm and moving read with the healing power of books at its heart’ Kate Storey
‘A beautiful writer . . . such attentive compassion and warmth’ Carys Bray
‘Full of warmth, heart and most excellent book recommendations’ Zoë Folbigg
September was adopted when she was fifteen months old. She knows nothing about her early life, but she grew up safe and loved. Now, though, it’s just September and her feckless boyfriend Shaun. And she’s at her wits’ end. There’s never enough money, and she has nothing to look forward to.
Then a letter comes. September has inherited a house – and Shaun can see endless opportunities if she sells it. But, almost as soon as she sets foot in the garden, September knows she cannot let this home go. And she longs to find out more about the mysterious Lucia who left it to her.
When the members of Lucia’s book club arrive, for the first time September hears stories of her mother, of the aunt who adored her, and of the secrets that broke the family apart. And she begins to make new friends.
September feels safe here. But money alone can’t bring contentment. September is at the start of a journey full of surprises, shocks – and opportunities, if she’s brave enough . . .
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson is $1.99 at Amazon – price-matching fairies, come on by! Katie mentioned this novel in a March 2024 Books on Sale post, saying it was good, and Heather S mentioned it in a Whatcha Reading post, saying, ” I really liked the characters. I knew it was women’s fiction, not romance, going in, so that was fine. It did have the “outsider comes in and in like 3 months knows a ton of people who will risk their jobs to help her so she can save everyone” trope, which annoyed me.” I also spotted this book recommended in a thread on Facebook for “recs with Gilmore Girls vibes.”
“A sparkling bookish story about rules just begging to be broken.” — Abby Jimenez, New York Times bestselling author of Part of Your World and The Friend Zone
I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books. If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules.
When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend’s struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn’t easy. Bell River’s literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.
And in Maggie’s world, book rules are made to be broken.
To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything.
Maggie will have to decide what’s more important: the books that formed a small town’s history, or the stories poised to change it all.
My mother is so funny. Everytime I put my ear cuffs on she’s always like, “I’m not sure I like that,” and she has no idea how to handle me cheerfully replying, “I do, that’s why I wear them 🥰”
So when that failed she was like, “what does @mothman-etd think about them?”
Like I’m sorry, you mean the man who hypes me up so much you can see his adoration of my very existence from space? The man who calls me his sun to his cryptid moth? That man? You think you can use that man to make me feel bad about myself?
Lol, lmao, even.
Anyway. The horrors persist but I’m feelin’ cute so ✌️
“Oh yeah, what does the man who’d fight god for you think?”
I know my period is coming because I just hoofed my way through two family-sized bags of ready sated crisps. Not just any crisps, the bougie olive oil ones from Marks and Spencers.
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