We walk on air, Watson

How in hell is it Christmas? I've only just got my head around it being 2023. I'm writing this on my phone while visiting my in-laws.

Reading

Finished both Havana: Year Zero and Shadowlands. The former finished pretty well so I feel fonder of it in hindsight than I did while reading it. It became more about the state of Cuba and what it was like to live through the turbulence of Year Zero, and about Julia's developing friendship with Barbara, the only other prominent female character. Everything was a tangle of lies a d deceit and heresay but Julia got out of it okay. Shadowlands was brilliant. It left me feeling rather melancholy (I should probably have read it in the summer) and angry about the drowned village of Tryweryn. England's historical shittiness about Wales is a running theme in this book. I'd never heard of Tryweryn before but it was pretty upsetting to read about the callous way it was taken over to serve as a reservoir for Liverpool, with barely an attempt to engage with the people who actually lived there. The fact that it was a Welsh-speaking village upholding many Welsh traditions just makes it worse. Cofiwch Dryweryn.

I've started to reread the Murderbot books, as I've only read the novellas and need to refresh my memory before finally reading the novel. The first, All Systems Red, is better than I remember and a great intro to the world. I love Murderbot and Mensah. The second is fun - Murderbot trying to pass as human is great and I love ART - but the mission and the group Murderbot joins aren't as good as in the first book.

I've also started Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love. I like the premise a lot. This is the blurb:

Writing

Still no. I signed up for Get Your Words Out 2024 though, since it did encourage me this year. I'll hopefully get back to it in January, and I'm eyeing up a couple of exchanges.

Watching

Finishing Interview With the Vampire. Loved it, I can't wait for season 2, especially with a bigger role for Assad Zaman, who is very beautiful. I'm very invested in the show version of Louis, which is probably mostly to do with Jacob Anderson. I hope he gets some really interesting, meaty roles after this.

Reading

Finished Thursday Murder Club, which was a lot of fun! I thought I'd guessed the answer to one of the mysteries, but Osman managed to surprise me. I'll pick up the second one for sure.

I've started Havana: Year Zero by Karla Suárez, which is my last book in the Storygraph Reads the World challenge for this year. This one is for the Cuba prompt (if that wasn't obvious from the title)

I jumped ship from Goodreads to Storygraph a few years ago and I prefer it in basically every way. This is the second year I've done the Reads the World challenge, and while I've not loved every book I do like how it makes me look further afield and try new things. 

So far I like the book okay. The premise is interesting: Cuba in 1993 is in the 'Special Period', the huge economic collapse following the end of the Soviet Union. The protagonist and narrator, Julia, is a mathematician on a quest for a document that proves the telephone was invented not be Alexander Graham Bell in Scotland, but by a Cuban. I love the premise, and there's so many interesting details about life in Cuba at the time, but so far Julia's life mostly revolves around three men (her ex-lover, her current lover, and a man who is definitely interested in her) and none of those relationships are particularly working for me. But I'm only a quarter of the way through, so I'm holding out hope that it will get more interesting.

My new non-fiction book is Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Cities and Vanished Villages by Matthew Green. I'm only on the first chapter, about the Neolithic settlement on Orkney, but it's fascinating and beautifully written. I was a bit wary that this book would be some elegy for a mythical, bygone "good old days" Britain, but it definitely isn't that at all. 

Writing

Very little! I finished a second fic for the Fic In A Box exchange, this one an original work. I'm quite pleased with it, and it also took me over my 150,000 words goal for the year. Hurray! I had intended to edit a bunch of fic this month but I think I need a bit of a break from looking at my own stuff after writing so intensely last month. I've not even had the energy to properly read my gifts for the exchange - I feel a bit burned out (and have a chest infection). But I'll set aside time in the next couple of days to make sure I appreciate my gifts properly, and hopefully I can jump back on the writing train soon.

Watching

Hey Duggee, mostly, because my toddler loves it. It's cute but it's no Bluey.

But also Interview With A Vampire! I bought the first episode on Amazon ages ago, but then they announced that it would be on the BBC so I waited. I have never read the books and only know some bits through osmosis but I am really enjoying the show. Jacob Anderson is absolutely brilliant as Louis (and it's becoming ever more apparent how wasted he was on Game of Thrones), and Sam Reid is so very watchable. I also like how thoughtfully the racebending of Louis seems to be being handled - Louis grappling with his new status as a vampire while grappling with his status as a Black man in Louisiana is some of the most interesting stuff in the show.

I've never really been into vampires or had a vampire phase, so my understanding of the inherent eroticism of vampires is more academic than anything else, but after a few scenes in these three episodes... yeah, okay, I get it a lot more now. This show is horny as fuck and beautiful while doing it. 

The second Doctor Who 60th anniversary special was great. It was a proper, solid Who episode, and felt like a spiritual successor to Midnight (aka the best episode of Russell T. Davies' original run, for my money). David Tennant and Catherine Tate were on fire, their chemistry is as good as ever. I can't believe I ever doubted Catherine Tate. It was funny, sinister, emotional and exciting all in the same episode, which is pretty great when for the most part it was just those two actors playing against one another. 

Can't wait for the next one, because these specials have been far better than I expected so far, and also: NCUTI GATWA LET'S GO.