Amnesty

So much for my belief I was going to post more this year.

So...since I last posted a month and a half ago, we've been through enormous drama regarding ARR and temper issues and other kids and other kids' parents behaving REALLY badly and stuff that I'm not going to post about. I've ranted to some people in person. It was unpleasant. It seems mostly resolved now. But there were a bad couple weeks.

I've also had an enormously stressful time at work involving multiple one day trips (like, on a plane at 6am, on the plane home at 8pm that day), a 3-day 1000 attendee conference we're planning while trying to do our regular jobs too with no additional staff, and a major survey I'm running that's supposed to publish next week. It has not been great.

And also a family wedding, which went beautifully, but was an intense weekend. Followed by a few days at my parents with blessedly few plans. ARR got to go to Treehouse World and Legoland. We splashed in the creek and had watergun fights and set up the tent in the backyard and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the firepit and read in the hammock. Which was nice. Although work managed to destroy all the relaxation before I even got home.

I'm never going to catch up on these.

#21. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. 3. Near victim of a serial killer who thinks it was her brother finds out it might be more complicated. Deeply unlikeable characters in less interesting ways than other Flynn characters, and the ending is really unsatisfying.

#22. Winds of Change by Mercedes Lackey. 4. I'd forgotten how much this one meanders, but have deep affection for it anyway.

#23. Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. 5. Very entertaining pop science, with some actual interesting insights thrown in to boot.

#24. Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle. 3. Kind of forgettable Elizabethan spy romance. Did not actually find the romance all that compelling.

#25. The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. 5. Snarky and satisfying.

#26. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan. 3.5. The people are ridiculous and the plots even more so, but this soap opera is weirdly compelling?

#27. Necessary Evil by Ian Tregillis. 5. Any plot description would completely spoil the previous books, but this spiraling plot of WWII fantasy is impressively well-laid.

#28. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth. 4.5. For a while, I couldn't tell what this combo retelling of Rapunzel and tale of a French courtesan exiled to a convent had to do with each other, but they dovetail impressively well in the end.

#29. How Long 'til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin. 5. Dazzling short story collection.

#30. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal. 5. The other half of the Lady Astronaut of Mars duology. Charming, tense, well-thought-out.

...I'm actually up to 56 books this year. I just haven't had time to post. Oy.