Reading

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Moon of Mutiny (Jim Stanley, volume 3) by Lester del Rey

Was Fred Halpern the boy space hero the papers believed him or the headstrong fool his teachers saw?

Moon of Mutiny (Jim Stanley, volume 3) by Lester del Rey

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: NCIS Origins

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Ognissanti

It's All Saint's Day. Since time no longer means anything to me I thought it was Il Giorno dei Morti (head desk) You can learn more here.

Since right now with my broke ass fridge I don't have milk/eggs so I couldn't make any of the sweets. Was going to make Frutta Martorana (marizpan shaped like fruit) but Kroger was out of it and I'm WAY too lazy to make it by hand. I did make up a batch of suga di zucca because I am too lazy to make pumpkin gnocchi so I'm putting pumpkin sauce over shelf stable potato gnocchi. You can find the recipe I used here. (unless you read Italian, you will need to hit translate)

Got a letter today. My bank has change my routing number. Remember when my job couldn't pay me and my loans couldn't get paid back in April/May and my bank insisted it wasn't them...bullshit. You see my bank bought out my original bank EIGHTEEN years ago and suddenly now they made it a Wesbanco routing number so now I have to go change ALL my credit card payment sites, paypal, Payroll, my student loans, change my checks and they gave me my new routing number. It's my SAME number. OMFG. did you send this to everyone?!? now I need to call them.

And it's NaDruWriNi right? Well I didn't look at the discounted wine when I grabbed it to make my sauce. It was peach/mango yellowtail (I thought I grabbed the pinot grigio) It was like adult kool-aid. I drank a little...turned out it was half the bottle. Oops. off to write.

It's been a long time but here you go, science saturday (all from one source, lazy lazy me)

Differences in red blood cells may have 'hastened the extinction' of our Neanderthal cousins, new study suggests

Building blocks of life detected in ice outside the Milky Way for first time ever

'Puzzling' object discovered by James Webb telescope may be the earliest known galaxy in the universe

James Webb telescope celebrates Halloween with eerie image of a dying sun — it's what our own might look like one day

Nanotyrannus isn't a 'mini T. Rex' after all — it's a new species, 'dueling dinosaurs' fossil reveals

Halloween dragons click them if you want

( Hazbin Hotel S2 spoilers but what ain't a spoiler is it has 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is now the most viewed animate show. Ever. )

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Books read in October

The Winter Walk: A Century-Old Survival Story from the Arctic by Loretta Outwater Cox (Sept 29-Oct 1)

The Butcher Bird by S.D. Sykes (Oct 2-8). The second in the Somershill Mysteries..I gave the first one to Becky and she bought the rest of the series and gave then them to me when she was done (both of us like historical mysteries). I love when the characters mention their bed curtains haha

City of Masks by S.D. Sykes (Oct 8-14)

The Bone Fire by S.D. Sykes (Oct 15-21). A "locked castle" mystery! Definitely one of my favorites in the series

The Good Death by S.D. Sykes (Oct 22-27). Please write more!! I hate when a good book series ends lol

The White Voyage by John Christopher (Oct 27-30). One of the characters' last name was "Mouritzen," so similar to my last name!

There were lots of trick-or-treaters in my parents' neighborhood last night! A Chinook came and made it pretty warm out, and the kids definitely took advantage of that (I felt bad they were getting soaked in the rain though). One person saw me and was like "you work at Forget-Me-Not [Books]!" Nice :P

Mom told me I'd remember my debit card's old PIN as soon as I went to a credit card reader, and she was right..I like my new PIN better, but I'm glad I'm not losing my mind haha

( nov 1. Three things you're grateful for )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: marching band

Entry tags:

halloween,
seattle

a traditional Halloween

I went to Funny Lady's Halloween party down at her new place in Georgetown. There were no hot queer makeouts or fearing for my life this time, but I still had a perfectly pleasant time in the Devil Girl outfit.

The house is decorated with clear enthusiasm for the – How do I put this? – kitschier, googie-er, space-age variety of mid-century modern. I can definitely see that coming from Funny Lady's husband P; it suits them. I'm happy that they've finally bought a place, even though it's at the opposite end of the city from me.

As I pulled up to their place in a Lyft, I could hear a marching band playing a few blocks away. I knew Georgetown was, characteristically, having a Halloween parade. (They love marching bands down there.) That means FL & P are within an easy, level walk of Georgetown's commercial district on Airport Way. It's not Capitol Hill, their old neighborhood, or even quite Fremont*, but there's plenty of fun to be had near them. I predict some epic two-bus trips in my future.

I may have talked too much about my plans for my face and how they happened. They are, nevertheless, a big deal to me.

I didn't stand so much in the Grand National boots that I wrecked my feet. I'm not hung over. I got enough sleep last night. On call was mercifully cooperative last night. I feel as if I've been blessed by the old gods.

*Fremont: a knack for visual theatrics, live entertainment, the best eats. Georgetown: actual working artists and occasional bikers, rougher-looking. White Center: up and coming, with plenty of queers and a slogan of "Not so white, not so centered." Fremont was once Georgetown. Capitol Hill was once White Center. What changed things? The tech industry.

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patreon

November 2025 Patreon Boost

You too can be one of the legions of James Nicoll Review supporters, financing my slow but steady advance towards review aleph null!

November 2025 Patreon Boost

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books received

Books Received, October 25 — October 31

Five works new to me: two horror, one and a half science fiction, one half fantasy, and one TTRPG that's hard to classify. Two could be said to be series works.

Books Received, October 25 — October 31

Poll #33785 Books Received, October 25 — October 31

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

Which of these upcoming books looks interesting?

View Answers

Dreamland by Olivie Blake (August 2026)
10 (27.8%)

Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey (May 2026)
12 (33.3%)

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three edited by Stephen Kotowych (October 2025)
14 (38.9%)

Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler (March 2026)
14 (38.9%)

Outgunned Adventure by Riccardo“Rico” Sirignano & Simone Formicola, with art by Daniela Giubellini (October 2024)
7 (19.4%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.8%)

Cats!
25 (69.4%)

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140 in 1400

140 in 1400 List

Progress This Month

Exercise every day in 2025
Weight lift every day of 2025
Brush teeth 360 times in 2025
Shower weekly 2025
Art Every Day 2025
Write in Spanish every day of 2025
Finish my memoirs
Write weekly 2025
Work through a book of writing exercises
Read 2 pages of Spanish every day 2025
Clean 2 minutes per weekday 2025
Clean 10 minutes per week 2025
Cook 12 times 2025
Watch a video in Spanish every week 2025
Watch a video in Russian every week 2025
Read 3 science textbooks
Read 3 social science textbooks
Read 3 history textbooks
Work through 3 math textbooks
Go to temple 12 times in 2025

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bingo

November's Bingo

fairy tales and fantasy theme this month at

allbingo

Once open a time	Solitude	Trickster God	You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.	Love is putting someone else's needs before your own.
And they all lived happily ever after	Hero	King	Wish	Duty is heavier than a mountain. Death light as a feather.
Shadow Hunters	Mercy.	FREE SPACE	You have three choices. You can give up - give in or give it your all.	Angel.
Glory	Castle	Sometimes what we don't want is actually what we need.	Candle	Devil
Talisman	Journey	Pixie	Magical Power	I didn't want power. All I wanted was control. Over my life.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: NCIS

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Happy Halloween!

I've been so down I didn't even dress up today but at least I did get to watch the first episode of Hazbin Hotel. Will watch the other one tomorrow and share my opinions then other than I'll need to rewatch is a few more times, not just to write it. It's got so much going on I can't follow it all (I will say didn't much care for either song)

So have the fannish 50 for the week, all the recs

( there is a lot this week )

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Friday five

1. When did someone make you an offer you couldn’t refuse? We have an interim Bookstore Manager at work, who has volunteered the past two or three years, and she's very good with processes and organizing, so she'd helped out a LOT this week (someone said she was rude and bossy at another job, but she's been great at the bookstore, thanking us for all our hard work). One thing I was like "YES" to was having my own cart (I shelve the fiction and DVDs/CDs) that no one else shelves from. Couldn't say no to that, I hate when other people shelve and mess the sections up lol
2. How do you feel about Italian food? SO good haha
3. When did you last attend a wedding? 2020, my cousin Jordan's
4. What do you know about organized crime in your city? Nothing, but I see what I assume are gang signs graffitied in various places
5. If you’ve been to Las Vegas, how did you like it? If you haven’t, how do you imagine you’d like it? I feel like it would be loud and flashy and lively lol

Here are Curti's pawprints in the snow!

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He was not a fan :P (he's way too smart, he somehow knew today was the day we go to my parents' house, and stayed under the bed instead of greeting me when I came home. I had to lure him out with a laser pointer, which he LOVES..I can hide it from him and press the button on it, and he'll immediately be like "I know that sound!! Where is it??" haha)

Because I love lists, here are the songs I've picked up on Shazam so far! (I'm loving this app!)
"Immigrant Song"-Led Zeppelin (I was testing out the app and just picked a song that came to mind lol)
"Holiday"-Green Day
"When You Were Young"-The Killers
"Nutshell"-Alice in Chains
"Helena"-My Chemical Romance
"But Not Tonight"-Depeche Mode
"Lovesong"-The Cure
"The Killing Moon"-Echo & the Bunnymen
"Party Train"-The Gap Band
"Only You"-Yaz
"Mountains"-Prince & the Revolution
"It's Goin' Down," from The Descendants 2
"(Don't Fear) the Reaper"-Blue Oyster Cult (I thought the guitar solo in the middle was a different song for some reason lol)
"Zeitgeist"-Black Sabbath
"Caruso"-Josh Groban
"Sway"-Dean Martin
La traviata, Act I: "Libiamo ne' lieti calici"-Verdi (I was at an Italian restaurant for these last three lol)
"California Sun"-The Rivieras
"Get a Job"-The Silhouettes. "Yip yip yip yip yip ma ma ma ma"?! Haha what?? O_o

( oct 25-31 )

(no subject)

I am trying to remember a quotation that may or may not exist.

It is a bit like Kiss of the Spider Woman's "This dream is short, but this dream is happy."

Something like "this is a (something) story for bad times."

Any contenders?

{rf}

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House

Entry tags:

shiny accidents

On call has been kicking my butt the last couple of nights, and it's only partly my fault. Basically, we're dealing with the collateral damage from Google's recent change in tactics to thwart scrapers that feed LLMs ("AI scrapers").

So on less-than-ideal sleep, I went for shiny drinks last night. That's why I passed up an occasion to be the Devil Girl and wore my lowest key latex LBD when everyone else was dressed up. I had a major ulterior motive: meeting someone there from a dating site. She begged off due to a migraine, though.

Not to worry! I spotted Rubbermaid across the room, unexpectedly returned from Europe. I all but squeed. I told her to expect private communication from me about just the two of us getting together.

So yes, it was a night of synchronicity. Splendid!

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in review

October 2025 in Review

James Nicoll Reviews saw its 3000th review on the 17th.

23 works reviewed. 12.5 by women (54%), 10 by men (43%), 0.5 by non-binary authors (2%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 10.5 by POC (46%).

More stats and a big chart here.

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M. F. K., volume 1 by Nilah Magruder

A stranger comes to Little Marigold.

M. F. K., volume 1 by Nilah Magruder

52/249-250-251: Another

Lately I've been very aware of the fact that I do not have my act together. In fact, my act is probably about as apart as an act can get. The last few days have been mild, and the warm afternoons with sunlight falling on the bed have been inducing naps, and then the chilled nights have invited me to crawl under the covers and sleep many hours. The things I ought to do keep getting put off and off and off by, well, me.

The mild weather will continue through the weekend, and be but slightly diminished Monday, so I'm guessing my lethargically addled state is apt to continue as well, perhaps ending with next Tuesday's showers, or Wednesday's actual rain. After that, it appears that autumn will actually be here, with the days bringing highs in the sixties and nights providing lows down into the forties. Will this wake me up at last? I wouldn't bet on it. That would demand that the process of aging be reversed, which I would venture to say is not likely to happen. The old me is the new me, and old me is as old as hell. This is it, from now on. That act will just keep getting aparter and aparter, until it will be as though it had never met.

Another fine mess I've gotten me into. And another, and another, and another....

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Hudson & Rex

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I can't live 55

So last night (after a lunch of pancakes and apples and pizza for dinner) I was feeling peckish at midnight. I hate eating late but I had a few tablespoons of peanut butter. 20 minutes later my dexcom alarms. My sugar is 68 and falling. I go get more sugar pills. 20 minutes after that it's now 55. If I can't get my sugar up now, I better get to calling 911. So more peanut butter (with some hot dogs after to stabilize things with protein) and more sugar pills. I'm also in the fridge drinking maple syrup like it's beer. It took until 2 AM to get it back up to 110 and I felt safe trying to sleep.

I finished really cleaning out that fridge so I can call to get it replaced (once I have a weekend/thursday free) What the hell happened to it? It's like 3-5 years old. It looks like it's 30. The freezer has a crack, the seal is a degenerated ripped mess. I took out the crispers and there are SIX cracks in the floor of the fridge. the one shelf's bracket crumbles as I clean it. The door racks are cracked. I think this thing had some manufacturing issue.

And dear sweet god, is it me or is this creepy AF and...wrong

Watch on YouTube

Hey here are a lot of my Halloween related stories (spook me and otherwise)

Like my Pro stuff

These Haunted Hills

Cassadaga Nights

And let's get the fanfic into fandoms

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series

Daddy's Little Monster

A Little Night Music

Dead Man’s Party

Prodigal Son

All Treats, No Tricks

Hidden Horrors

Not Her World

A Cabin in the Woods? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

What the Hex Is Going On?

The Flutter of a Moth’s Wings

Pareidolia and Fog

They Linger

Hazbin Hotel

It’s a Dead Man’s Party, Who Could Ask For More?

Surviving Horror Movies series

Rosie Had Everything Planned

Fullmetal Alchemist

The Believers

Beware What You Ask For

The Owl House

Raven’s Hollow

The Amazing Digital Circus

Remnant of Hope

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The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin

A fairy's efforts to recover stolen arcane tools via illicit means produce spectacular calamity.

The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Law & Order Toronto

Entry tags:

books,
work

Because I think I can

Today we were talking about muscle fatigue and one of the causes is psychological. It's easy to convince yourself you cannot do things but you can just as easily convince yourself you can do it. Like I told them I still hike in spite of my arthritis and disability because I believe I can. Sometimes it gets me in trouble but sometimes I get to do things going on sheer belief. I also told them just thinking about yoga tonight was me hitting the fatigue wall and I didn't want to go (storm came in bringing pain) but I did it because I know I can.

And I did. And I'm so proud of the instructor. She was a former student who has become a great adult. She's a beautiful teacher, knowing we're all older and not in great shape. She heard several of us talking about the pain (from the storm) and she modified her class so we were less stressed. She also reminds us we can modify the poses to fit our body's abilities. No judgment no shame and those are words we need to hear.

Mom isn't done giving me a stroke. So I'm in my 10 AM class and my cell phone rings. It's Mom's cell. She never uses that thing. My answer was 'what's wrong?'

Mom- I didn't mean to call you

Me - well here we are. What were you trying to do

Mom - to send you a picture.

Me - this is not how you do that. I'll explain how tonight.

Me- (to students) Mom. She's 82 and is a hazard with a cell phone.

Mom (to me tonight) you never hung up the phone and I was listening to your lecture

Fine, we're both dumb.

Right now I SHOULD be watching Hazbin Hotel. Am I? No. Why? I've been logged into my brother's Prime for over a year now no problems. Today it fucking logs me out AND won't let me back in without texting my brother's phone. yay. Thanks for nothing Amazon.

What I Just Finished Reading:

Mirage City - Really good, really depressing, deals heavily and I do mean heavily with historic homophobia and LGBT rights in the 1950s

Lackadaisy vol 2 - huge volume, gorgeous art, love the story

What I am Currently Reading:

Haunted Cemeteries of Ohio - you know why

Spellbound - turned into 100% male fantasy fulfillment

What I Plan to Read Next: Anne of Green Gables