Another long drive, another audiobook done! Nine Goblins by T Kingfisher was great! Funny, a little tragic, & on-the-nose about the joys of wildlife rehab. Basically, a ragtag team of goblins ends up *way* behind enemy lines & discover a horrible mystery. 💙📚 📚🪐 @tkingfisher.com

Had a long drive today so I listened to a whole book! (It was a short one.) Caitlin Doughty narrated her book Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death. It was lots of fun! As the name implied, it was a Q&A book, with the questions supplied by kids. 💙📚

Yesterday I finished up my commuting audiobook, The Secret Life of Words: English Words & Their Origins by Anne Curzan. It's actually a series of 36 lectures, put out by The Great Courses (she's a professor at University of Michigan). It was fantastic! So interesting! 💙📚

We interviewed a dog last night, then got fast food on the way home. It's been years since I've been in a McDonald's, I guess, because we had to order at a kiosk. We'd have gotten more human interaction going thru the drive-thru. Not a fan.

"No foul play", my ass. O look, I tripped & fell on this knife ... 97 times.

Well, fuck. Granted, it's "annoying cold"-level covid - but there's too many pop-up side effects & after effects. You can't trust this virus to stay innocuous. & so many kids at school are sick, & I bet they're not testing, & I bet their families don't know about sequelae.

Just finished the book group book: Rose/ House by Arkady Martine. It's good & creepy! & it's creepy in the right kind of ways that I'm also counting it as the Gothic novel for my library's fall reading challenge. The main character is arguably Rose House itself.

Ooo, an advance reader's copy of Slayers of Old by Jim C Hines! The cover kind of gives it all away - A trio of retired paranormal heroes have to save the world (again) from an eyeball-y & tentacle-y threat. This was my Labor Day weekend - Who needs to prepare for school? 😆 @jimchines.com 💙📚 📚🪐

OK, now I gotta see this. Frankenstein is my favorite monster movie & I'm excited to see a version that's closer to the book. Will it beat Young Frankenstein? It can try. 🥰

Another anatomically incorrect skeleton joins my collection. (There was also a cockroach but the fly won, because of its wings.)

I got The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (& narrated by Pete Cross, but the translator isn't listed) for the trip back from Chicago, since it was short. Ooo, very trippy, very surreal. I can see why it's still famous. (I do wonder what sort of bug he was.) 💙📚 📚🪐

Went to Chicago to visit family yesterday & finished From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (& read by the author). She writes about visiting 8 different places with very different death rituals, looking at how communities support grieving families. 💙📚

Ug. I make a point of learning my students' names, especially how to pronounce them. I preface the first roll call with how nobody can spell my first name or pronounce my last name, so names are important to me. (Cuz there's always that kid who already says "no, it's fine". No, it's not.)

Hey friends, I have a former student who's beaten leukemia, but his meds just went up $600/month. Crowdfunding is underway; if you can donate and are so inclined, it would help enormously. I've done so and can personally vouch that it is legit. If you can, please use this Cashapp: $SHOWUP4LOU

Barred Owls have bracketed this day - before my alarm went off this morning & while I was walking just now. 🥰 (The sounds, not the birds themselves.)

Ug. The candidate we interviewed last week didn't accept the job so we're down a science teacher. Which means we'll have a long-term sub take the 6th grade classes & I get the high school class. (We're a 6-12 building.) So, no prep until we hire someone permanent. #EduSky

My next audiobook is The Chicken Chronicles by Alice Walker (& narrated by the author) - It's a collection of short essays, mostly framed as letters written to her flock of hens. It's also part travelogue, part celebration of beauty & joy, & part recovery from trauma. She packs a lot in! 💙📚

Scientists! @skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun! We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15 If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Read this whole thread. The OP was a medic at Charlottesville, someone who is supposed to be "heroic". Me, I'm a teacher - but the time for me to stand between my kids & danger is looming. & that sucks, for them & for me. None of us should have to be heroes. All of us will need to be.

I went out to school earlier this week, in part to weed & water the new portion of my wildlife garden. (The contractors who are fixing the bricks & the roof aren't respecting the edges. 🫤) I found a friend in the exuberant Rattlesnake Master!

#BlackInChemWeek #STEM #Chemistry #Science #BlackSky

The new Fantastic Four movie is the future we were promised - flying cars & robots with a '60s vibe. (No jet packs, tho.) & the story was good. The team *felt* like a family, which hasn't always happened. & they built sets rather than green screen everything. It was fun, I liked it.

Did you know there's a superhero museum in Elkhart, Indiana? It started as some guy's private collection, that he put into a pole barn (with a Justice League facade 🥰) in his backyard. Now it's in a strip mall area. I'm betting it will move & up its game again.

Mostly small stations in rural areas that are news deserts; residents rely on them for local news, emergency warnings (radio works even when cell service doesn't). Mostly in Alaska or serving tribal communities. There are stations in CO, WV, NM, and AZ. One station lost 97% of its budget.

GEN CON! Writers! Gamers! Friends! If you're on a panel or event, please pitch the project. Just a quick mention - "I hope you'll check out the 'African Translation Project' on Ko-Fi; it's got a cool art shop" would mean so much to me, and the human editors and translators this is paying.

I de-acclimated to the heat & humidity so I've been taking it very easy. Yesterday I read a kid's book, both before I put it on my shelf & for the "robot, cyborg, or AI" prompt in the library summer reading challenge. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown is the story of an island castaway.

I didn't listen to my audiobook book while I was off visiting so it took the whole 21-day loan time to finish it. Zen & the Art of Starship Maintenance & Other Stories by Tobias S Buckell, narrated by William DeMeritt, is a lovely collection of space stories. 💙📚 📚🪐 @tobiasbuckell.bsky.social

I visited my college roomie last week. She carted me around & it was great. We looked for banana slugs (too late, too dry) & we found Steller's Jays. Tide pools are time sensitive but it was fun anyways. Plus we saw a play & music in the park.

So, read this blog post. From a Real Actual Author. Then read all the responses from other Real Actual Authors. Then buy all the books. 🥰 (Honestly, there's books from a fair chunk of these people on my shelves. You will find something you like.) & all the hugs to all the authors.

We just translated a wave of our ICE coverage into Spanish. No paywall, no email signup necessary. From leaks about Palantir's work with ICE to ICE's new facial recognition app, we think there is a massive public interest in this info. Read why and support us here: www.404media.co/were-publish...

Today I got to witness an ADA violation. A lady & her service dog had trouble getting onto the shuttle to the hotel - but the driver called his boss & got it sorted out. But then she didn't get a room? The manager had her wait while the rest of us got checked in.

Today I finished up Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress (& then watched The Congress, the movie with Robin Wright). Ijon Tichy, hapless astronaut, gets caught up in political upheaval - & its pharmacological repression - while attending the futurological congress.

Spent yesterday reading & finished Stone & Sky by Ben Aaronovitch. In this Rivers of London book, the team goes on vacation to Aberdeen, Scotland. Dr Walid's old friend has evidence of a mysterious big cat roaming the countryside - & of course it gets more complicated. 💙📚 📚🪐

Finished up my next audiobook while crocheting last night: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin, narrated by George Guidall. I'd seen the PBS movie years ago, but barely remembered any of it. George Orr ends up in "voluntary" therapy because he thinks that his dreams change reality. 💙📚 📚🪐

As a treat for finishing the hard part of my summer (& because it counted in the library's summer reading challenge), I read a fun book: Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher. It's an advanced reading copy - Expect it in stores next month. 💙📚 📚🪐 @tkingfisher.com

My next book was a short story collection, for the summer reading program. I read "the lost stories" collection, A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett. These were all under pen names, in newspapers, & often serialized. There's a foreword by Neil Gaiman & an introduction by Colin Smythe. 💙📚 📚🪐

Just finished up Kitemaster by Jim C Hines. The author came to a book launch event at my local bookstore a couple weeks ago. In a world of constant wind, some people have the dragons' gift to control the air. But people being people, this gift can be used for war too. 💙📚 📚🪐 @jimchines.com

I've been driving to a teacher conference so I've got another audiobook book finished up. I listened to Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses, written by David Scheel & narrated by David Stifel, for the SciFri book club. Lots of cool science, lots of indigenous connections. 💙📚

I've been overwhelmed by grad school & haven't watched much the past couple years, but I'm all done with that come Monday. Guess this series is going on my summer to-do list.

Fireflies! 2 species - the one with the long flash that likes the grass & the one with the quick twinkly flash that stays higher up in the trees. (There's probably a color difference in the flash but I can't tell.)

How to creep me out & make me instantly recycle your home insurance flyer - Have a picture of *my actual house* on it, next to my address. Um, no thank you, creepy insurance place. I don't care that you found my house using Google. That's not clever marketing, that's stalker behavior.

A novella for the library's summer reading challenge: Living a Boy's Adventure Tale by Caitlín R Kiernan. It's a time travel tale, told non-sequentially, from various points of view. It's kind of a modern day version of Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", with the Internet & all. 💙📚 📚🪐

My book group is reading The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Roe by Kij Johnson this month. According to the author note at the end, it's a response to Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath (which I haven't read). A college student has run off with a Dreamer & disaster looms. 💙📚 📚🪐

Finished the next audiobook. School is over for the summer so I'll have more time for regular books. Anyways, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher, narrated by Patricia Santomasso, was great. I was expecting a gingerbread army, based on the cover. @tkingfisher.com 💙📚 📚🪐

Huh. I've been hearing Eastern Wood-Pewee around but not a phoebe since early spring. Are they quiet because they're nesting or because they're not here?

It's not even midnight-thirty & I just heard a cuckoo. (Yellow-billed, I think.) Go to bed, bird!

Another audiobook done! The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K Le Guin & narrated by Christina Moore. Humans are making a home on the world of Victoria, in the city & the town. Folks in the city have a rigid patriarchal society while in the town they are nonviolent & communal. Hence the conflict.

Ooo, best book trailer ever!

Here's my next audiobook. (This one was short, plus I didn't post about my previous one immediately. I promise my commute isn't this long!) I listened to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, only in Spanish (El Principito), narrated by Elisabet Egea. 💙📚

My next audiobook was Goblin Tales by Jim C Hines. It was an adapted dramatization done by Graphic audio. I've read all the Jig the Goblin books but I don't have this short story collection. (Altho I knew a couple of these stories - Maybe I heard him read them at a convention?) 💙📚 📚🪐