Friday, February 16, 2024

Weekly Reading (2/16/24)

Note: I'm participating in the Knit for Food knitathon in March to raise money for hunger charities! If you have a few spare dollars and would like to support this important cause, head this way.

I don't usually do breaking news here, but reports of Alexei Navalny's death are coming out as I'm writing this, and it's obviously not shocking but I'm so sad about it. If you want to keep up with updates I suggest the Guardian liveblog.

Has life improved for transgender Americans in the last 10 years? Not really. (The 19th*)

H.I.V. Groups Warn of Privacy Risks in How C.D.C. Tracks Virus Samples (NYT)

Grisly secrets of the ‘disappeared’ of Anglo-Irish war uncovered by research (The Guardian)

How the MAGA-fed Taylor Swift conspiracy theories caught fire (WaPo)

Pawol to be first woman to umpire MLB Spring Training games since 2007 (MLB.com)

And! A’s hire Jenny Cavnar as first female primary play-by-play announcer in MLB (The Athletic)

My taxes are too complicated to qualify, but NH folks, definitely check if you do! New Hampshire tax filers have a new filing option, directly from the IRS (NH Bulletin)

MLB players dressing down Nike, Fanatics over new uniforms that look ‘like a replica’ (The Athletic)

How Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Secrets of the Bahamas’ First Inhabitants (Smithsonian)

How to Create a Black Hole Out of Thin Air (NYT)

Grizzly Bears Are Mostly Vegan (The Atlantic)

Friday, January 5, 2024

Weekly Reading (1/5/24)

Happy Friday! I miss putting together link roundups for you, but not having that deadline every morning has been very good for my writing output in general. So I'm going to try something different this year - a dozen or so links once a week (usually Fridays), with a variety of topics and probably a combination of new stuff and older pieces I happened upon and wanted to share. Hope you enjoy!

Kangaroos, squirrels, and treasure hunting: The unique bills of the 2024 session (New Hampshire Bulletin)

Artificial intelligence can find your location in photos, worrying privacy experts (NPR)

New Images of Jupiter’s Moon Io Capture Infernal Volcanic Landscape (NYT)

The anonymous clock-watchers behind MLB’s pitch-clock gambit (The Athletic)

He’s The Trans Son Of An Anti-Trans Influencer. It’s His Turn To Speak. (HuffPost)

Let's Talk About Lineups (Baseball Prospectus)

You are not, in fact, the granddaughter of the witches they couldn’t burn (Going Medieval)

Russia Has a Vodka Addiction. So Does Vladimir Putin – But Not the Same Way. (Politico EU)

Women over 40 jump in to save double Dutch, a lost American pastime (WaPo)

Who First Realised the Earth Was Round? (Antigone)

Daniel Bard Made an Improbable Comeback. Then He Had to Do It Again (The New Yorker)

The Essential John le Carré (NYT)

Monday, January 1, 2024

My Top Reads of 2023

Happy New Year! I started trying to make a top five or ten list of books of the year and wound up with 30! Even then, there were some tough calls. I've divided them into categories here for your browing pleasure. Note: I only included books I read for the first time in 2023, and I only included one book per author. I also didn't include any books I read early that will be published in 2024 - those will go on that list. Each list is alphabetical by author because there are only so many decisions you can ask me to make on a holiday. Stars are the top 12 I made into a pretty graphic for Instagram.

Romance:

* Game Misconduct by Ari Baran
The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
* Diamond Ring by KD Casey
The Spare by Miranda Dubner
The Marquis Who Mustn't by Courtney Milan
Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
* We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Mystery & Thriller:

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino
Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
* Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
* The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
* City of Dreams by Don Winslow

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

Kindred by Octavia Butler
* When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
* A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
* Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
Liar City by Allie Therin

Young Adult:

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
* We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
Always the Almonst by Edward Underhill

Other Fiction:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Charioteer by Mary Renault

Nonfiction:

* Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
* The Only Rule Is It Has to Work by Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller