I made the mistake of starting STRANGE HOUSES right before bed. My soul wanted to finish it in one sitting, but my body was sooooo tired I had to put it down with a little more than half left. This morning, I finish this creepy, propulsive goodness.

Maybe the ending‘s crap, which is why it has such a low Litsy rating, but I sure have enjoyed the ride.

Here‘s a little preview of the miniature gingerbread bakery I got in my local indie‘s post-holiday sale. I put in a lot of work on it today because I HAD to finish the tagged book, which was a goddamned delight. I love everybody in this murder family. More, please. #audiocrafting

First library haul of 2026! I‘m especially glad STRANGE HOUSES came in for me during this little sliver of physical library access. STRANGE PICTURES was completely my thing. It‘s always good to see more from Billy-Ray Belcourt, too.

Further realism from katherena vermette.

I used to think my grandma had a friend named Deirdre. Really, she just had a lot of opinions about Deirdre Barlow.

Some time ago, I mentioned my cousin Steve to my father. He had a disconnected moment because he assumed I must be talking about Steve MacDonald.

I myself give the residents of Weatherfield SO MUCH good advice, and they IGNORE me every time. It‘s like they‘re in a soap opera or something.

katherena vermette is so good at this.

One last treelight read before I take the thing down tomorrow. 😔

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is my project book for 2026, chosen because I generally have a grand ol‘ time with Dumas and because he and I became instant bros after I visited his tomb last year. (Yes, that‘s how it works. Unless the tomb-occupant did really shitty stuff like, say, reinstate slavery, NAPOLEON.)

Also, it‘s really frickin long.

One preliminary thought: ⬇️

I read TOUCH NOT THE CAT six years ago and I remember nothing about it except that it maybe had a mosaic somewhere in it. Since the ebook was $0.99 right when I was celebrating getting my ereader to 100% read, I figured I‘d give it another try. If I‘m lucky, I‘ll persuade Stormy to tuck up in bed a little earlier than usual so I can zoom in on it until I pass out.

This seems a bit familiar.

I don‘t remember how I heard about ZOC, but I‘m sure glad I did. Jade Khoo offers up a weird, sweet comic about a kid whose big interests in life are reading about wandering minstrels and dragging large amounts of water behind her by way of her hair. It‘s a gorgeous, art-forward look at unconventionality.

The beer was great, too. I‘ve loved Obsolete Brewing Co‘s whole Music Machine series. This guava & passionfruit catharina sour LANDS.

Still trucking along through TURBULENCE alongside sweetie-pie Stormy. It feels very much like assigned reading, which is what I‘m in exactly the right mood for. I carry on not because I‘m invested in the characters but for the window on the rural China of the 1980s and the opportunity to consider the differences between Chinese and Western story structures. I‘ll hopefully finish it tomorrow.

THE CHILDREN OF GREEN KNOWE is one of those books that loomed large in my childhood because it both entranced and confused me. It‘s been sixteen years or so since I last read it, so when it showed up as a December bonus borrow on Hoopla I figured it was a sign. Now here I am, glorying in how creepy and joyous it is.

The lamppost has nothing to do with the book, really, but I saw it on NYE and it delighted me.

Presenting my top reads of 2025.

NB : I reject the Goodreads ratings system and all its works. For me, a 4-star book is something I loved, a 4.5er is something I loved the hell out of, and a 5-star read is, like, WHATEVENISTHISICANTDOWORDS.

Throwback to yesterday afternoon, when I drank a lovely Cat‘s Got the Cream Ale from Rebellion Brewing Co and began TURBULENCE. So far, the book‘s interesting but not gripping. I keep coming back to how the story often feels like it could be set at any point in the last 2000 years, until someone mentions cadres or telephone poles and it‘s like, oh yeah, we‘re totally in the 1980s.

Monday afternoon reading time with Stormy-boo. I don‘t want to put SISTERS IN THE WIND down, but I‘m now halfway through and general consensus seems to be that the ending is a lot weaker than the beginning. Hopefully I‘ll have a divergent opinion there.

Here I am, reading about animals with a sleepy animal. (She‘s called Stormy, and she‘s a total sweetie.) This anthology brings together fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and it was a lucky find. While I haven‘t enjoyed every piece, it‘s just so gosh-durned nice to have so much themed writing in one volume. There‘s definitely a literary magazine vibe; expected, given Freeman‘s antecedents, and most welcome.

I thrifted a couple puzzles this week and did one of them while I finished the tagged book. Grace Perry uses an EPIC amount of American school language, which y‘all know grates on me, and she sometimes presents specific experiences as universals, which, ditto. Other than that, I loved this. She has a lot of spot-on observations on things like performative heterosexuality as influenced by pop culture. #audiopuzzling

Please enjoy Casey‘s latest closeup, and also my assurances that I‘m LOVING the tagged book! It‘s not really a holiday read, despite how many Christmas decorations the publisher stuck on the cover. I‘m halfway through and we‘re just at the start of November. What it IS is a really excellent character study, with plenty of stellar fashion and a deeply loved dog. I wish I could binge-read it today, but I‘ve got two events to attend. Tonight, 🤞.

Back into the holiday stuff with tonight‘s treelight read. (Branchlight read. Whatever.) The main character seems pretty terrible so far, but I‘ve gotta think the book‘ll focus on her personal growth. Maybe she‘ll have a change of heart as she experiences the magic of the holiday season?

NB: this was one of the two books I bought to celebrate getting my Kobo to 100% read. It‘s now back to 99% read, which I‘d like to maintain forevermore.

I was so excited when I found DEAD DEAD GIRLS in a Little Free Library near Finian‘s place, and so crushed when I actually dove in. To be generous, this reads like a second draft: flat characters, long paragraphs full of dull sentences that repeat the same thing from three different angles, and consistency errors. It could‘ve been a solid book with a more rigorous editor. As it stands, I bailed at 50 pages. Back into the LFL it goes.

Tonight‘s treelight read. It‘s been great to really delve into M.C.A. Hogarth‘s Peltedverse this year, and I‘m glad I remembered the holiday collection in time to read it during the actual holiday season.

Next year, I tackle all the Fallowtide stuff. This series is huuuuuuge.

I finished the tagged book ahead of my library run. Bob Joseph is a corporate trainer, and it shows both in how he‘s organized the material and in his economic focus. Still a solid primer if you‘re looking for an introduction to or a refresher on the topic.

Last library haul of 2025! I‘m glad katherena vermette‘s new poetry collection made it in for me before I had to suspend all my holds. I ain‘t sure I‘m in the right mood for QUEEN DEMON, but I‘ll give it a go. And I couldn‘t resist this tiny book of essays, poems, and fiction excerpts about walking.

I‘ve loved the entire Evander Mills series, but MIRAGE CITY was my favourite since the first, LAVENDER HOUSE. I love how Rosen brings in so many takes on the fight for queer rights in the 1950s, all wrapped up in a hell of a tense mystery.

Please, may we have more books? Please?

I finished an historical mystery this afternoon, with Finian‘s capable help. (His napping skills are off the charts.) While it does often feel like Vatsal included certain period details just because they came up in her research and she didn‘t want to waste them, I enjoyed this a lot. It‘s a great portrait of a young woman feeling out her options in 1910s America. I‘m sorry Vatsal never continued the series past two books.

I‘m working on my first-ever round puzzle while I listen to this really lovely spin on THE HOLIDAY. Each storyline gives its character so much—queer community for Clover and supportive family life for Bee. I can‘t wait to keep going. #audiopuzzling

Ahhhh, Freya Marske always comes through with the vibes! I loved this ghostly, bisexual take on Cinderella. There was a terrible moment yesterday evening when I thought I was too tired to devour it in one go, but my body came through for me and I finished it before I fell asleep. It was so cool!

Every year, I choose a project book; something fun, but maybe also kinda daunting because it‘s really long or it has a Reputation or whatever. This year, instead of a single book I decided I wanted to get my Kobo to 100% read—and just now, I DID IT.

LAST FIRST KISS was a great note to end on. I‘ll have a proper review for you closer to its January release date, but lemme tell you there were some TEARS.

Tonight‘s treelight (and menorahlight; we‘re multifaithing it here) read is a highly anticipated ARC and also the VERY LAST unread book on my Kobo. I finish this and I‘m at 100% complete, baby!

I don‘t think it‘ll be a struggle. I flew through the first 20% of Jordan‘s story and I‘m excited to dive back in soon as I get supper in the oven.

I started the tagged book by treelight yesterday, and I enjoyed the first 18%. It didn‘t land for the majority of Littens who group-read it last year, but I collect queer assholes and I‘m into stuff about fictional rich people behaving badly, so I feel like I‘m exactly the target audience.

That said, I‘m looking forward to the character development arc. The best queer assholes are the ones who care about stuff, not the always-super-mean ones.

This week‘s library haul. I‘m so glad MIRAGE CITY came in for me before I enter my nomadic period. It‘s gonna make physical library use rather spotty, which is why I chose not to participate in Auld Lang Spine this year. (Also, I somehow only read six non-late-in-series books I‘d consider absolute faves. Some years the goodness overflows; some years you can‘t even assemble a Top 10.)

I finished my aunt‘s mittens at more or less the same time as I finished V.M. Burns‘s third Mystery Bookshop novel. This series is fun so far. I enjoy both the main storylines, which feature multigenerational investigatory shenanigans, and the excerpts from the historical mysteries the main character writes to help herself unwind. #audioknitting

Literally the only thing I like about winter is the way the sky glows on cloudy nights. I read with the house lights off and the drapes open so I can gaze at it.

Tonight‘s glowy-sky read is KJ Charles‘s latest, which I‘m very much enjoying for its hardcore gothicness. Hoping to log some more time with it before I pass out tonight, though I might switch to bed (which has no sky view) because reading on an iPad really is a pain.

Mitten progress. I‘m past the thumb break now!

I‘m trying to alternate between fiction & nonfiction audios through to the end of the year, so I combed through my Litsy stack last night and found Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai‘s memoir. I‘m so glad it was available on Hoopla. She‘s a fascinating person who seems committed to looking at the world through a compassionate lens. #audioknitting

Just hanging out, reading queer SF in the dark. EDGE OF NOWHERE has a totally different vibe from my first book by Felicia Davin, which was epistolary historical fantasy, but it‘s still really good. I‘m happy to spend long stretches with it, and it‘s been a while since I could say that.

(Well, it‘s been two books, but each of them took me FOREVER. I probably won‘t finish this until tomorrow, but at least I‘m reading at a good [-for-me] clip.)

I finally started the patterned part of my aunt‘s lefthand mitten while I finished Richard Wagamese‘s memoir. It doesn‘t look like much of anything yet, but I feel like it‘s coming along faster than the righthand one did. We‘ll see if I still feel that way now I‘m past the first ten rows. #audioknitting

Read another little bit of BRIGANDS & BREADKNIVES while I did an airport run. I devoured the first seventy pages a couple days back, but ever since then I‘ve been limping along through it. I dunno if I‘ll finally find my rhythm with it or if I‘ll just kinda drift away and try again some other time. We‘ll see what happens tonight and tomorrow. I should have more reading time now I‘ve finished another leg of my journal review project.

I blasted through another ten volumes this week, which means I‘m over halfway through revisiting my 130-volume journal! Now it‘s time for a break. I‘ve covered twenty-five volumes since November 23rd and I‘m burnt out on this project.

Tomorrow, THEY burn. I‘d do it tonight, but it‘s late enough I might alarm the neighbours.

(ETA NB: two of these notebooks were made from old book covers. I didn‘t burn novels.)

I‘ve been rereading SKIP BEAT! by treelight. Last night it was vol 50‘s turn. Tonight I fully catch up with vol 51, and begin the wait for 52.

Also of note: I CANNOT BELIEVE how much I loved vol 49 the night before last. The first couple times, I regular-loved it but didn‘t click with it on the same level as the rest of this arc. Now I‘m all, “OMGOMGOMG” over the fabulous character moments and all the little funny bits.

I‘m pretty sure I heard the latest iteration of AVENGERS ACADEMY has been collected somehow or other, despite its Infinity Comicness, but Litsy‘s database doesn‘t have it and I NEED to tell y‘all how much I love it so I‘m sticking it under a way older one.

It‘s SO FUN. Silly and cute and heroic and also full of Very Serious Emotions. Plus, it‘s queer as all getout. I have to force myself to put it down and do other stuff.

I need to cook from EAT DELICIOUS more often. Dennis The Prescott has tons of great recipes. Tonight I made a modified version of his cheesy shakshuka. I shrunk it, took out the onions (yuck), added spinach, didn‘t puree the sauce, and cooked the whole thing on the stovetop instead of mucking around with the oven. It was delicious, and a LOT of food. I won‘t need to eat again until tomorrow morning.

I‘ve got most of my to-do list done, so it‘s time for a book & Casey break! I started GO LUCK YOURSELF last night and almost abandoned it because I wasn‘t really feeling it. I‘m enjoying it a bit more now, past the 100-page mark, but I still don‘t feel as strongly as I want to. A lot of my issues with THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE KISSMAS are still very much present, and there‘s just not enough of a spark to overcome them.

I finished reading through another ten volumes of my 25-year daily journal, so I got to have a little fire tonight. I‘ve reached 2004, in which I hit a LOT of weird little personal touchstones.

Gonna see if I can clear volumes 61-70 before I lose the privacy I need for this process. That‘ll take me past halfway through my 130-volume archive.

My library ordered THE WINTER SPIRITS last year but cancelled it, so I was glad to see it in a recent ebook sale. The first story in this ghostly winter anthology was very good indeed. Casey snuggled with me for most of it, then hopped out of the chair and made faces at me. Little dude wants to walk in the snow, not read.

I decided to go straight from THE SHADOW QUEEN to SHALADOR‘S LADY so I didn‘t lose momentum like I did the last time, when I had to wait for the second book‘s release. Alas, I had trouble sitting down with it while I was sick, but I‘m hard into it now. Hopefully I can finish it tonight, by treelight, with some assistance from this bright little decoration.

I‘m still not eating a whole lot, but I was well enough to hit the grocery stores and the library today! I‘m especially happy to see Sadiqa De Meijer‘s new book, since I loved her last one. It‘ll be good to see what Travis Baldeee‘s crew is up to, too, and even though I had big issues with THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE KISSMAS, I still had enough curiosity about the characters to request the follow-up.

I had a big to-do list for today, but a small flu took over my life. I didn‘t even get a whole lot of reading done because I tried to sleep in between pukey sessions.

I did manage to read a play, some African history, and a few comics, though, including about half of the tagged book. I keep going back and forth on this series. I don‘t like it as much as Arakawa‘s other work, but every time I‘m about to tap out it pulls me back in.

A few years ago, I started rereading the daily journal I kept for twenty-five years so I could make note of important stuff and then burn each volume. I had a longer-than-anticipated gap in the process, but the conditions are right this week so I‘m back at it. Ten more volumes met their end tonight.

If you‘re all 😱, be assured I don‘t do this lightly. This journal is my mandala: something I had to make but don‘t have to keep forever.

Last night I gave in to my Anne Bishop cravings and started rereading THE SHADOW QUEEN. I read it right after it came out in 2009 and basically all I remembered was that I went in with no expectations and loved the hell out of it. I dunno if it‘ll be quite so hell-free after this time, but I don‘t wanna put it down. I‘ll take a night off from African political history so I can properly wallow in this slice of life dark fantasy.

Put some decorations out last night, then read two more stories from LEGENDARY FRYBREAD DRIVE-IN, a shared world YA anthology that gives an Indigenous twist to the inn-between-worlds concept. As of 50%, the majority of the stories are strong, with solid emotional cores.

I finished the tagged book while I rigged my bookshelf with colour-changing lights. (This blue‘s my fave, so it‘ll be the default.) As others have pointed out, Coward‘s scholarship ain‘t exactly rigorous. He tackles a few subjects I know inside and out in such a way it‘s obvious he doesn‘t, so I must assume he‘s the same on most of his other topics—BUT, so much joy went into this book, even in its darker moments, that I had an awesome time with it