Tag: Short Stories

Weekly media report – 2025 07 09

Books
Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD (3rd edition), by Susan C. Pinsky. I don’t have ADHD but chronic illness has given me some of the same management issues, and I’m pretty sure spouse has his share as well. This is the third edition; I’d previously read the second edition, and there’s some additional useful information in it. Specifically there’s more up-to-date suggestions for keeping your online life organized. I think I’m feeling the desire for what this book calls a Brutal Purge, because I’m thinking about rereading another, similar book next.

Short Stories
Death and Liquidity Under the New Moon, by Vajra Chandrasekera. Post-mortem military service by the author of The Saint of the Bright Doors. Nuff said.

Movies & TV
Murderbot, episodes 7-9. We get to the climax and find out what’s going on, finally, and everything blows up in everyone’s faces. Next week: the payoff. Then I’m going to read the books. I continue to enjoy this series and especially Alexander Skarsgard’s deadpan as he deals with his clients/cow orkers.

Music
Neave Trio, La mer: French Piano Trios & A Room of Her Own. Two albums of chamber music that I’m mostly not familiar with but definitely enjoyed. I picked this album because the trio has two women, putting them squarely in my “listen to more women in 2025” project, and because their newest album (the first) got a nice review in the Guardian.
Apple Essentials: Tangerine Dream. Pretty sure the answer here is still I really like the late Virgin era and am not so crazy about anything else.

Weekly media report – 2025 07 02

I’m going to start putting my mini-reviews here as well as longer reviews for books that I think merit it.

Books
The Starving Saints, by Caitlin Starling. Medieval fantastic horror in which three women (a knight, a heretical nun, and the daughter of an executed noble) are locked in a besieged castle with supernatural forces that come as the face of their goddess and her saints. Really good with vibes and twists. I only picked this up because of the medieval connection; I don’t normally read horror.
The Case of the Missing Maid, by Rob Osler. Series starter with a novice woman private detective in Progressive era Chicago; she has to find a missing woman in the Polish community in a case that hinges on, among other things, exploration of her lesbianism. The second book isn’t out yet but I’ll be interested in seeing where this series goes.

Short Stories
Why We Sing, by C.C. Finlay. Paywalled. The story of how mermaids came to be, with a twist.
Welcome 2 the Freedom Galaxy, by Maurice Broaddus. Paywalled. Interstellar funk wars. I love the Prince-inflected musician our protagonist follows.
Banded Iron, by T. K. Rex. Paywalled. What happens when it’s your turn to go back to Earth to fight the interstellar kaiju?
The Green Glass Paperweight, by Sarah Monette. (Reprint from 2004) Hard to talk about this one without breaking the twist but it’s worth it. What does the hated godson select as his bequest?
All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, by Marissa Lingen. The gift shop manager convention on a space station takes an unlikely turn.

Music
MARINA, Princess of Power. We listened to this in the car and my husband thinks it’s a post-divorce album. It’s retro disco-pop in a fun way, really girl power, and I’m going to be listening to it again and again. I never really got into her last two albums as much as the first three, but this one hit the sweet spot again.