Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
What Are you Reading, Watching, Listening To?
Averin wrote: "I read A Murder in Bloomsbury, thanks to this group, and a real waste of cyberspace or anywhere else it appears, Cowboy Prince. I’m on my IPhone, which doesn’t let me link. Yet I warn you mm reader..."I wondered when it was free and most of her other books were m/f. I've read a couple other m/f authors lately who seemed to try to be expanding their audience and their books were fairly bad as well. I'm not sure if they're trying to be more inclusive or just trying for a wider audience, but they really need to have their books edited for authenticity. Of course, this shows her editors are not knowledgeable as well.
Averin wrote: "I read A Murder in Bloomsbury, thanks to this group, and a real waste of cyberspace or anywhere else it appears, Cowboy Prince. I’m on my IPhone, which doesn’t let me link. Yet I warn you mm reader..."I'm also weary of authors who always wrote exclusively het romance and now suddenly discover m/m.
Still, some of them are very good also when they write m/m.
For ex. I've just reread Work for It and I gave it 5 stars. And I also liked Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher.
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https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...
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I read and very much liked both of those. I read all three of Kingfisher's The Saint of Steel books (the first two are m/f) and loved them. https://www.goodreads.com/series/3115...
Karen wrote: "A New Yorker article: The Gender Fluidity of Krazy Kat (not sure if the link will work here)https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-......"
Such a fascinating article, thank you very much!
And it quotes this lovely article by Michael Stipe from REM:
«Queerness is a state of mind brought about by understanding»
https://www.theguardian.com/world/sho...
Josh wrote: "True crime documentary INTO THE DEEP: The Submarine Murder Case.https://www.netflix.com/title/80239100
I found this unexpectedly moving. The crime was interesting, yes, in fact, it was truly dis..."
I finished this a couple of weeks ago. really liked it.
Before watching this, I watched “The Investigation” (Danish TV series) on HBO Max which a very detailed police procedural of the murder case - there is a lot of interesting and nuance details. And the restrained way they go about the investigation just added another layer of sadness to the story. Absolutely heartbroken for Kim Wall’s family.
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Sister Boniface was pleasant but... yeah. Utterly unmemorable.
We're enjoying Recipes for Love and Murder a lot, but we do seem to take our time getting back to it.
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I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THE NEW DOCTOR. :-D
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The latest incarnation of DISAPPEARED is uneven, but still enjoyable. So much has changed investigation-wise since it first aired in 2010 then I think in several cases it would more aptly be named NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE YET TO CHARGE.
Over Halloween weekend we watched Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2. We'd never seen either before. They were amusing. I think I preferred the first to the second.
The SO bought me Taylor Swift's new album. :-D But I like her! I make no apologies. I haven't had a chance to listen yet.
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I started to fall back into that obsessive can't-look-away-or-the-world-will-fall-out-of-the-sky thing. But I stopped myself. I've done what I can. I contributed money, I voted, I contributed more money. What will be will be. And we will survive as best we can until the revolution.
HA. I hope I'm kidding.
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I started to fall back into that obsessive can't-look-away-or-the-world-will-fall-out-of-the-sky thing. But I stopped myself. I've done what I can. I contribute..."
God... I read a book about it. How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them. It's horrifying how close we are as a country. I'm trying not to think about it. I don't know how we could slow the process or stop it unless everyone on the Right suddenly becomes nice again and wants to be friends and not alienate the rest of us. ugh...
Yeah, don't watch the news.
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https://www.amazon.com/Episode-2/dp/B...
There's also an American version from 2011 set in the Pacific NW that's "only" 13 episodes. :) https://www.amazon.com/Pilot/dp/B004T...
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Funny, but serious: John Oliver about trans rightsLast Week Tonight with John Oliver: Transgender Rights II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8Nv...
(Video, 26')
The transcript is here: https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/tv-seri...
To watch and listen to:The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XwXl...
((3' video by the London creative director and artist Em Cooper))
50 years ago the iconic album «Transformer» by Lou Reed came out.A good occasion to listen to it once more.
Here is the whole album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUi_Z...
I’m reading the rather abysmal Catherine de’Medici:Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda. The European Renaissance is one of my favorite periods (I have a degree in history) and I was really looking forward to this $1.99 Amazon special. Terrible writing, no editing, spurious or no attributions. Every minutiae of clothing and meals and not enough of Catherine herself. It might as well been written by Laurel K Hamilton and I keep waiting for vampires.
It is helping me get to sleep, though.
I'm reading a wonderful, sad and hopeful book by Colum McCann,
Apeirogon. The author defined it as «hybrid», because the book is fiction based on two real persons and their story, one Israeli and one Palestinian: both lost a daughter to violence.I organised an event in my town to collect money to fund the tour of the two protagonists in Switzerland, organised by a friend of mine. Next week I'm going to listen to them and to meet them.
See some reviews, from enthusiastic to critical:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a...
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/20...
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Apeirogon. The author defined it as «hybrid», because the book is fictio..."Wow that sounds really cool!
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Apeirogon. The author defined it as «hybrid», because the book is fictio..."Your activism is inspiring, Antonella!
Karen wrote: "I just finished The Road to Silver Plume, a Tamara Allen book that somehow was lost in my TBR hill mountain. She is such a wonderful historical writer. I loved learning about the sw..."Thank you for pointing out the second book of the series! I didn't know that it existed.
Thank you also for the compliment about my activism. It's just what I like to do ;-).
Seen thanks to Julie Bozza who is interviewed in the Slate article:The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/ao3...?
I just finished watching sense8. It was a really good show!
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I'm very near the end now and hoping there will be a third. Also, I'm hoping this might be a break-through to a larger audience for Tamara Allen's books.
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I'd read about this and then back-burnered it. I will definitely give it a look.
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The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/ao3......"
And it mentions The Professionals. :)
I always meant to watch some of these as I'd missed them when they came out. I don't actually know whether they were broadcast in the U.S. When I searched for them some years ago the only options I found were DVDs that would have required purchasing a multi-region code zone free player... which I actually looked into. :)
Now I've found the series on Plex (free) at https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/provid...
The clothes and furniture/sets are hilarious (and that's coming from someone who lived through similar), but Bodie and Doyle are definitely ship-worthy and inspiring of fanfic.
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The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
https://slate.com/culture/2022/1..."
That's super awesome!
Karen wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I just finished watching sense8. It was a really good show!"I'd read about this and then back-burnered it. I will definitely give it a look."
Yes, you should. It does have a lot of sex, which I forwarded through after a point, like graphic sex, but the STORY overall is awesome! Some dark moments, some funny moments, some really ridiculous lol moments.
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I started to fall back into that obsessive can't-look-away-or-the-world-will-fall-out-of-the-sky thing. But I stopped myself. I've done what I can...."
Well, so much for my good intentions!
But honestly, the results of the election were so much less worse (er, better?) than I'd anticipated, that I actually feel almost...hopeful again? Like there is such a thing as commonsense? Maybe it's not as common as we'd hoped, but it does still sometimes prevail?
I think there are two factors that lead us so perilously close to an unnecessary civil war (speaking as someone who is also not satisfied with the direction many things are going, but who understands that you can't remain a nation state without everyone--EVERYONE--making compromises):
1 - Social media - and how easily it's manipulated
2 - An increasingly self-righteous embrace of incivility and intolerance--from both sides.
Happily, I've got a mile-long list today (including trying to get an Indian Hawthorne bush into the front garden before the ground freezes) so I'll spare you all the impending diatribe. ;-D
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Always look on the bright side! :-D
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The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
https://slate.com/culture/2022/1..."
H-H-Hilarious?!!!!
D-D-Did you just say Boyle and Bodie are HILARIOUS!!?
Speaking as someone who bought the region-free DVD player when it was still sort of complicated, you've got to admit, The Pros are pretty entertaining. ;-D
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What I recall of the American version of the Killing is that it was the first limited series where it was painfully obvious the producers were padding and stretching what should have been about two episodes shorter. Also, the SO and I were so outraged by the (we felt) manipulative "ending," we never tuned in again.
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I do this sometimes. It doesn't tend to bode well for finishing anything. :-D :-D :-D
I'm a bit disappointed at how little fiction reading I did this year. I started out well, but then...
And I know I say this every year--I think we all say this every year--but holy moly this year passed in a blink.
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Hugely anticipating GLASS ONION, the sequel to Knives Out. It seems like there's quite an appetite for classic mystery right now. Which makes me so very happy.
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Hey. I totally, unashamedly enjoy Swift's work.
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Hey. I totally, unashamedly enjoy Swift's work."
And I've just hauled out the box of Christmas CDs. :-D
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The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
https://slate.com/..."
Just trying to get a rise out of you. Their sartorial choices are so very much of their time. Sadly, I know this from personal experience. :)
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The Danish version was 7 episodes longer! We were actually kind of mesmerized. It was really well done. And it could have been half that length if the impact on personal lives was drastically edited — but one of the makers was quoted about how the point was to give equal attention everyone affected to the family, the police, the victim, the potential suspects.
We just watched episode 4 of the American version. Funny story, we were watching it and about midway through before we realized that we'd picked up from my watch list (finished episode 3), rather than my husband's (almost finished with episode 1)... so maybe you and the SO have a good point. ;)
I'm not sure I'll watch all of the 13 episodes. Right now it's really interesting to see how the characters and some of the content was modified from the Danish version, and how much is the same. It's kind of like reading different drafts or the original of something and its mash-up. I've always been into that.
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Thanks, Jordan. I somehow missed that Agents of Winter was out (10/10/2022 release date). I just got it — I also loved the first two.
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yay! I think you'll really like it. It's a sweet story.
Jordan wrote: "Just finished His Quiet Agent, Merlin in the Library, and Agents of Winter. The first two, obviously, were rereads. I loved them all. Such a great li..."Thank you also from me, dear Jordan.
I had missed those books, and I liked very much His Quiet Agent.
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I'm super glad I could remind you all that they exist! His Quiet Agent is one of my all-time favorites!
I'm currently reading the anthology Kind Hearts at Christmas, which is in support of two AIDS/HIV charities, one in the US and one in the UK.There are some nice LONG stories in this anthology of over 750 pages. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it, and so far all the stories are good, some of them great. As far as I'm concerned, Barbara Elsborg's story is worth the price of the book alone. As I finished it, I said to myself, "This, THIS, is why I read." Beautiful ending.
And now I'm ready to dive into the remaining 500 or so pages. Yay!
Q&A with Josh Lanyon
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mystery of Nevermore (other topics)The Mystery of Nevermore (other topics)
The Mystery of Nevermore (other topics)
The Mystery of Nevermore (other topics)
When the Tides Held the Moon (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Nate Bargatze (other topics)Jordan Castillo Price (other topics)
Joseph Hansen (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
Gregory Ashe (other topics)
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Apologies for being too long, I am probably affected by California’s extremely long, 5 page ballot.