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LENT is religious fiction and historical fantasy. It‘s distinctly litfic in tone but also reminiscent of 70s SFF. The main character is often portrayed elsewhere as one of history‘s great villains. There‘s a time loop. It‘s generally pretty weird.

It‘s also great, at least from where I stand. It got me thinking about religion and historiography from new angles, and it made me want to read a lot more about Savonarola.

70 pages to go! I should be able to finish LENT tonight, at long last. I had one day where I only scrounged enough mental energy to read a single chapter, so I feel like I‘ve been inside it forever. I hate reading slowly.

I ate some Skittles while I read a bit more. They‘re those non-rainbow Pride ones, which seems like a weird marketing choice to me but whatevs. They still taste good and they were $0.94 on clearance.

It‘s frickin miserable out right now: 12 and rainy. That‘s completely unacceptable for late August. Tonight, I have even less patience than usual with cold-lovers (ie, none).

I made my favourite warm Brussels sprout salad with bacon, tomato, and balsamic dressing to sorta cheer myself up. LENT‘s helping, too. All my reservations have melted away and I‘m now hard into it, though I‘m pretty sure I won‘t finish it tonight.

I like to read by book light during thunderstorms so I can properly appreciate the lightning.

I‘m now just over 100 pages into LENT, and it looks like I‘m gonna stick with it. I always think of Savonarola as one of the Villains of the Renaissance, but Jo Walton‘s fictionalized version of him has got me intrigued.

Breakfast with a new book. To be honest, I‘ve felt ambivalent about LENT since I got it, and I‘m even leerier now I see it has a 0% Litsy rating. Still, I‘ll give it a couple chapters and see if it clicks. I‘ve got a history of loving SFF that most folks wrinkle their noses at.

Plus, I think most of my ambivalence is to do with POOR RELATIONS, a forced gender reassignment novel Walton announced a while back and I guess cancelled? It shook me.

I really, really wanted to love this book. Girolamo Savonarola is presented as a demon who keeps trying to save Florence. He is executed again and again, enters hell, and re-emerges, with more knowledge , but not more wisdom, and lacking divine guidance.

Unfortunately, the repetition and sheer weight/length of the tale made me feel as though I too was trapped in Hell.

I‘m a big fan of Jo Walton, and I finished LENT, but ... so-so.

Got about 30% read in the hairdresser. It's interesting to read this historical fantasy while also playing the Ezio games from the Assassin's Creed series -- my history is getting all muddled (such as it was to begin with for this area and period).

Would've read more, but spent the evening rewatching old episodes of The Great British Sewing Bee and finishing off this crochet lace blanket. Future snuggly reading times ahead!

It took three different retailers and two cancelled orders, but finally I have this book. Biscuit's checking... She doesn't *quite* believe it. #BunniesofLitsy