profiterole_reads: (Star Trek - Kirk and Spock)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism edited by Francesco Verso was excellent.

This contains 9 sci-fi short stories from Bahrain (2), Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine (2) and Syria. Some of the recurring themes are climate change and technological evolution. One of the stories also includes fantasy elements.

There's a bi male protagonist, with some m/f, m/m/f and m/nb.

Database maintenance

Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 am
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

Eclepsis by Aloïs

Oct. 23rd, 2025 06:02 pm
profiterole_reads: (The Secret Circle - Diana Adam Cassie)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
The French graphic novel Eclepsis, written and illustrated by Aloïs, was awesome! Basile lives in Gouès, where only women are allowed to practise witchcraft. After transitioning, he leaves for Eclepsis, where he takes the exams to enter the Academy of Magic.

This will be a trilogy, and I'm very excited to read more. The characters are loveable, the two magic systems are interesting and the art is great.

In addition to the trans male protagonist, there's some f/f. For more HP-like LGBT stories, check out my rec list. For more LGBT Quick Reads, check out my other rec list.

Thanks for the rec to [personal profile] malurette!

Kill to Love

Oct. 20th, 2025 05:35 pm
profiterole_reads: (HOB - Hua Cheng and Xie Lian)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
The BL Chinese/Singaporean drama Kill to Love was great. Sixth Prince Xiao Shu He and Assassin Duan Ziang want to live a simple life together, but they'll have to face many obstacles.

This is uncensored (only on-screen kisses, though), as it is a coproduction between China and Singapore. It's very different from Meet You at the Blossom, except in the fact that it starts nice, then turns fucked-up (positive or negative, depending on what kind of plot you like).

I also ship Shen Song/Huo Ying.

AWS outage

Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
profiterole_reads: (Sense8 - Nomi and Amanita)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Nomade, le meilleur endroit du monde by Anna-Livia Marchionni was excellent. It's the story of a Russian mathematician (Ksusha) and her girlfriend from 2012 to 2017.

The author uses her lovely writing style to denounce the discrimination against queer people under Poutine.

There's major f/f, minor m/m, as well as a trans female character. Ksusha sometimes questions her gender, is on the autism spectrum and has Jewish origins.
mesozoic: plush sauropod (Default)
[personal profile] mesozoic
Whoops! I fell off of recording books here. I haven't updated Good Reads in awhile, either. I do keep up on The Storygraph and I like that app very much. If I write reviews, that's where they are. 

My last reading log post was for the books I read in May, so here is what I read in June-September (in order of when I read them):
  • Interim Errantry 2: On Ordeal by Diane Duane
  • Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
  • Surrealia by Miguel O Mitchell
  • A Pirate's Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne
  • Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
  • Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
  • The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis
  • Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
  • Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
  • The Swifts by Beth Lincoln
  • The Song of the Lioness: Book 1: Alanna: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Tamora Pierce with Sam Beck and Vita Ayla
  • Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
  • Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
  • Tea You At the Altar by Rebecca Thorne
  • Alchemy and a Cup of Tea by Rebecca Thorne
  • Stealing the Elf-King's Roses by Diane Duane
  • The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
  • Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
  • Husband Material by Alexis Hall
  • Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection by Deepa Iyer
  • The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Sirronde's World: The Span/Parting Gifts by Diane Duane
  • Uchenna's Apples by Diane Duane


So far in October, I have read:
  • Redshirts by John Scalzi
  • When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
  • The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
I'm still working on No Bad Parts by Richard C. Schwartz. 

A lot of the things on that list are queer romance, a lot of them are fantasy, and some are both. Because of Reasons, I went reaching for books that we already had, either because someone else in the house had already read them or because I bought them in advance. For instance, I bought "everything in the shop" as E-books from Diane Duane awhile back, and I regret nothing. 

I liked almost everything I read. I think The Swifts was just not a book for me. Grimoire Grammar School was OK, I had no reservations about giving it away to a book drive when I was done with it, no need to recommend it to anyone in particular. 

Several things stood out. Surrealia is a science fiction story written in verse. It was fascinating. The Alanna graphic novel is highly recommended, especially if you already love Tamora Pierce. Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is fun and engrossing and profound and definitely worth getting over the hurdle of not usually liking "horror" books. This was also true of Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays. I am really glad I read Stealing the Elf King's Roses; I probably would not have picked it up without the "everything in the shop" sale. Though it was short, Automatic Noodle was so hopeful and lovely. I may have mentioned that The Bones Beneath My Skin had a slow start. Now I know that was like at the beginning of a roller coaster when you need to take a lot of time to strap in because the ride is so wild. It had some of the same themes as In The Lives of Puppets, but in a very different world. 

There was a period of several years beginning in the middle of 2020 when I could not read fiction. I just couldn't take on the additional stress of characters being put in situations. I worked my way back starting with comfort reads of books I already knew well, then cozy and hopeful books, and now I think I'm back to being a regular reader. That's a relief. 



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