pedanther

Fiction books
Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward: 2000-1887
Yoon Ha Lee. Revenant Gun (e)
Dave Luckett. A Dark Journey (re-read)
Dave Luckett. A Dark Victory
Dave Luckett. A Dark Winter (re-read)
Jules Verne, tr. Frederick Amadeus Malleson. A Journey to the Center of the Earth
HG Wells. The War of the Worlds (re-read)

In progress
Anne Brontë. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (e)
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Hound of the Baskervilles (e) (re-read)
David Langford. He Do the Time Police in Different Voices (e)
Yoon Ha Lee. Hexarchate Stories (e)

Non-fiction books
AC Grayling. The Good Book

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Joanna Russ. The Female Man (e)

I gather this is also a part of the Yuletide experience, so here are a dozen good stories from this year's collection that were written neither by nor for me.

To begin with, the one that I've been recommending to pretty much everyone who stands still long enough:

Four Things that Weren't Adequately Covered in Mulan's R.A. Training (4540 words)

Mulan is a Resident Assistant on a dormitory floor at a college. Gosh, some of the students on her floor come from really screwed-up families.

In which the Disney Princesses are translated into modern college students sharing a dormitory, supporting each other as they deal with weird health problems, annoying acquaintances, and a variety of screwed-up family histories.

Fortunately, Belle has a Doctorate in the University of Googling Everything and after Aurora fell asleep in the middle of a conversation about last week's Dr. Who, she said, "You know what I bet you have? I bet you have NARCOLEPSY."

( also: American Gods, Arm Joe, Asimov's robots, Black Books, The Fifth Element, Galaxy Quest, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Sneakers, and ... )

The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified

Tudor Spies and Perfidy (750 words)

A meeting of the University of Leicester excavation team.

Fewer Than Ten Scenes From the Second Coming of Richard III (5500 words)

The discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester brings a number of visitors to the city, most of them dead. Tourism may suffer. A handful of vignettes from this critical turning point in English history.

First you need to read the blog post, if you haven't already. There were quite a few "what if some of these things were true?" stories in Yuletide this year, but these are two of my favourites.

"Tudor Spies and Perfidy" is short and hilarious. "Fewer Than Ten Scenes" is longer, also funny, with a poignant turn at the end.