weekend open thread – September 21-22, 2024

by Alison Green on September 20, 2024

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand.

Here are the rules for the weekend posts.

Book recommendation of the week: Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by TJ Klune. The long-awaited sequel to the House in the Cerulean Sea, in which the two men running an orphanage for magical children must fight against danger from the outside world. Nothing will match the magic of the first book for me, but I was very happy to visit this world, and these characters again.

* I make a commission if you use those Amazon links.

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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }

  1. Ask a Manager* Post author

    The weekend posts are for relatively light discussion — think office break room — and comments should ask questions and/or seek to discuss ideas. “Here’s what happened to me today” personal-blog-style posts will be removed (because they got out of control in the past). We also can’t do medical advice here.

    Please give the full rules a re-read.

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  2. Jackalope*

    Reading thread! Share what you’re reading and give or request recs.

    I read a YA thriller last week (not usually my style but I read it for a reading challenge) called Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide. It’s a story of 2 Black high school seniors who are just starting their final year of high school when someone starts targeting them, spreading partially true information about them around school and gradually becoming more and more threatening. The story ends up becoming chilling and a disturbing example of some truly nasty racism. (Not that there’s racism that isn’t nasty, but this is particularly awful in the way that it’s targeted.)

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    1. HS science teacher*

      I read 48 books over the past 16 weeks! (I didn’t finish five of them.) Some of my favorites:
      – God of the Woods (literary mystery)
      – Sandwich (contemporary novel)
      – A Walk in the Park (nonfiction, ecology and indigenous history and adventure in the Grand Canyon)
      – Birnam Wood
      – The Hunter
      – All Fours

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      1. goddessoftransitory*

        What did you think of All Fours? I’m partway through it and don’t know how to feel about the protagonist, but really love the writing.

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    2. Atheist Nun*

      I read and liked There Is No Ethan by Anna Akbari, who recounts how she and other women were scammed by an online dater and then banded discover to uncover the person’s real identity. Akbari reminds readers that she is a sociologist, and her field focuses on the “how” of human behavior. I would have liked to know the “why” (which she frames as the domain of psychologists), but because the scammer who perpetuated this fraud refused to be honest and provide their motivations, we will likely never learn this information.

      Akbari spends most of the book on the “how” and captures the sheer volume, details, and tedium of online chat/email communications that can be part of modern dating. How the women who were duped exposed and confronted their scammer was fascinating. What is most disturbing is that the person who abused their vulnerability and yearning for love is now employed in a profession that entails a huge amount of trust and intimacy with women. You can easily find the person’s name online if you do not read the book.

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    4. chocolate muffins*

      I read A Family Daughter after having read Liars and Saints a few months ago. They tell different versions of the same story and I was trying to read them close enough in time so that I’d remember at least some of the first book I read while reading the second one, and I mostly succeeded with that, though I’m sure I missed some connections as well.

      The combination of these two books is fascinating to me and I’m curious to hear what others think about them. I read a discussion guide that asked whether one book seemed more like “the true story” than the other, and that seemed like a reasonable question until I got to the part in A Family Daughter where it is revealed that Liars and Saints is a novel that one of the characters wrote. So, the answer to the discussion question seems pretty clear to me, though maybe others have a different perspective? It also seemed a little odd to me that A Family Daughter says the novel changed people’s names, but the actual names are the same for characters across both novels as far as I can tell (except maybe for someone like Gail/Saffron — I couldn’t tell if they were meant to be a version of each other or if Saffron just didn’t make it into the novel). I understand having the same name from a practical standpoint – it definitely made it easier for me to follow both stories! – it just seemed like an odd point of disconnect when A Family Daughter explicitly noted that the names in the novel were different. That is a small point, though, and overall I was a big fan of both of the books, especially in combination – A Family Daughter even more so than Liars and Saints, I think.

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    5. Falling Diphthong*

      Read and loved: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Brooks. In the mid 1800s Siberia abruptly transforms into a strange, magical landscape that is dangerous to human minds (though this seems to be innate rather than targeted). So of course humanity builds tall walls in Russia and China, and then runs a luxury rail line right through the middle of the Wastelands. The book follows a voyage in 1899, with a train full of people with secret agendas. A book where I didn’t know where it was going, and then it nailed the ending.

      Gave a shot to Tress of the Emerald Sea by Sanderson, because it was on a book display next to several books I’d read and loved. Tress lives on island in the emerald sea, but the sea is made of spores on another planet. This one didn’t do it for me–the characters were too firmly fairy tale tropes and the sci fi world not developed–but I mention it in case someone is into modern spins on the fairy tale.

      Returned to The Ministry of Time by Bradley, about the person assigned to work with an Arctic explorer brought forward in time as part of a government time travel program. Slow start; more interesting as more layers became apparent; took a turn into foci that bore me; pulled together interesting layers at the end.

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    6. Bike Walk Barb*

      I bop around between books depending on time of day, day of week, and mood.

      Fiction: Continuing through the Veronica Speedwell books by Deanna Raybourn, currently on Book 9, A Grave Robbery. I read her Killers of a Certain Age, which started me on her series, both this one and the Lady Julia Gray series (which does a lot of romanticizing about the Roma people while the main character is supposedly very broadminded; I haven’t asked my family member’s Roma fiance how he’d feel about the portrayal).

      Nonfiction: Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton. I read an article on the concept and wanted to learn more about it.

      Nonfiction: A Wave in the Mind, a series of essays by Ursula K. LeGuin that I’m loving, both memoir and pieces about writing. Reinforces her position as my favorite author since childhood.

      Poetry: You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón.

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    7. goddessoftransitory*

      Just starting off my Halloween readathon with Dracula! I’ve probably read it forty times or more over the years and keep finding new little bits to appreciate.

      Also just starting Thieves Like Us in my noir collection, and plowing through Cunning Folk, about the practical use of magic/spells in medieval Europe. It’s fascinating!

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    1. Birdy*

      We’ve been having some deliciously cool weather in my area, and I’m loving it! Fall is my favorite (and not just because I have a fall birthday ;) one week away!)

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    2. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

      My weaving workshop got canceled, but instead of canceling my PTO, I kept it, so today was day two of a four day weekend and I still have the whole weekend to go! And I got a lot of progress made on unpacking boxes and totes in my craft room to get stuff put away. I found four works in progress – two are getting frogged, because I don’t know what patterns they are and one of them didn’t even have knitting needles in with it, but the other two are ready to pick back up again. (Though they’re two projects of the same pattern. Which is a little weird. But hey. Presumably I was doing it twice because I liked it.)

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    3. Bike Walk Barb*

      The perfection of being out in my garden picking a big crop of beautiful tomatoes of all sizes and colors in mild summerish/fallish air while insects sing a shrill song.

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    4. chocolate muffins*

      I got to spend time with a friend I hadn’t seen all summer and it was lovely to catch up. Also had some delicious lunches with some other folks I hadn’t seen in a while and both the company and the food were small joys.

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    5. Kiki Is The Most*

      I recently moved from Europe to SE Asia, and this was the first time I actually shipped items through a professional mover. I half expected everything to end up at the bottom of the ocean, so I was incredibly happy to have my small assortment of boxes delivered to my flat on Monday. Opening everything carefully and remembering the memory behind it all has transformed my new space into my “home”.

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  4. iPhone games?*

    Searching for phone games
    I loosed playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, but the free version is shutting down soon. I’d like to find free games for iPhone that don’t require in-app purchases to still be fun. I had downloaded Royal Match, but it quickly got to a point where I couldn’t win without in-app purchases or waiting an increasing amount of time to “retry.” I liked a mindless bubble pop game but it drained my battery & made my phone hot. I like mindless cute games that aren’t dark or overly complicated.

    Do you all have suggestions?

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  5. Birdy*

    Anyone see any fun shows (e.g. concerts or theater) recently, or have one coming up? I saw a live jazz band with some friends last weekend and it was a ton of fun. It was music from Cowboy Bebop which I’ve never actually seen, but the soundtrack is fantastic.

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    2. Dark Macadamia*

      I don’t really go to concerts but awhile back I went to a Daft Punk laser show and it was AMAZING. I kind of just went on a whim and it was so much more fun than I’d expected!

      My most recent theater show was Something’s Afoot, an older musical I’d never even heard of but it was staged in my area and seemed fun. Very silly murder mystery parody.

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  6. Valancy Stirling*

    Procrastination thread! What have you been putting off that you want to get done this weekend?

    I need to clean my trash can.

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    1. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

      I need to go through the upright freezer. I know I have some ice cream in there that’s left over from last Thanksgiving. :-P

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    2. Just Another Cog*

      I really need to tidy up my WFH space. We moved to a new place and the home office area was kind of thrown together so I could start working on time. It’s a mess. Because of your question, I’m going to do it tomorrow! Thanks!

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    3. Resume please*

      I need to buy wall paint (after I get it color matched) to touch up a few patches that were affected by some construction work. And I need to switch my homeowner’s insurance. And clean some mirrors. Fun stuff.

      I can probably knock out all of that tomorrow morning. But will I? No. No, I will not.

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    4. Bike Walk Barb*

      Mending a couple of things that have been waiting around since last fall or winter. Since those seasons seem to be approaching, it’s time.

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  7. HannahS*

    I want to branch out in classical music. I listen to the same stuff a lot–I like Baroque music in general, opera, Romantic-era art song, particularly French and German. I’m not crazy about sacred works, having been inundated with them in the past.

    What classical pieces do you like? Any favourite composers or specific pieces?

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    1. Middle Aged Lady*

      Chopin Etudes esp as played by Jan Lisiecki.
      Eric Satie’s work
      I like movie soundtracks too—listening is like experiencing the movie again.

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  8. Jackalope*

    Gaming thread! Share what you’ve been playing and give or request recs. As always, all games are welcome, not just video games.

    I finished my most recent run of Fire Emblem Three Houses this week. I played at a harder level than I had previously, which among other things meant I couldn’t spend a ton of time grinding my characters up. It was astonishing how quickly that made the game go by. I also played through the DLC storyline, and was really proud of myself. The last time I played it, it took about 15 hours. This time it took 6. I’ve definitely gotten better.

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    1. FSU*

      Board game: Wits and Wagers (Trivial Pursuit and poker rolled into one)

      Video games: I have an Atari 2600 emulator on my computer. That’s about as modern as I get.

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  9. Scotland!*

    Recently people have asked for books to help get a feel or a mental setting for a particular place. This week I’d like to ask for recs for Scotland!

    I’m going to be visiting next year and will probably be doing the tourist stuff around Edinburgh. But I’d like to kind of get a mental landscape.

    I’m open to category but I like mysteries and historical type books. Anyone have any favorites they’d recommend?

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    1. Fun!*

      Oh gosh. See if you can find the movie “Local Hero.” Admittedly it takes place in a small remote town , but it’s wonderful and all about the “feel” of a place and how it gets under your skin.

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    2. Kingfisher*

      The NYT (if you have a subscription) actually has a series called “Read Your Way Through” and it has an article for Edinburgh from April 5, 2023! It might have some good suggestions.

      Douglas Stuart has also written some incredible books about growing up in Glasgow (Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo) but those are admittedly quite bleak, so might not be what you’re looking for.

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    3. Two-Faced Big-Haired Food Critic*

      Check out Clanlands, by Graham McTavish and Sam Heughan. Yes, Duncan and Jamie from Outlander. They toured Scotland, checking out a lot of historical sights — and a lot of this history was not taught in their schools! Also, if you’re into Mad Men, you’ll find out what Pete meant when he said “The King ordered it!!”

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  10. About Switzerland*

    I love the question from Scotland! about books that provide an insight into a particular place. I’m traveling to Switzerland in late October for a conference in Bern with a couple of extra days.

    What books, movies, or other “something” would give me an idea of the place and the people?

    As a child I read “Heidi” and still have fond memories of the descriptions of the Alps but that feels like a pretty incomplete picture. I vaguely remember the William Tell apple/arrow story. Watching Jason Bourne movies and others that involve Swiss bank accounts doesn’t really do it either.

    What foods do I particularly want to try? Chocolate of course! I’m a vegetarian. Fondue, sure, but others that are especially good or in some way quintessentially Swiss?

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    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Thanks for asking. She is not doing well and she’s on hospice now. She did vote in early voting today though, which she’s happy about.

      In the middle of this, my husband was recently diagnosed with his own cancer. Highly likely to be cured with surgery, but man.

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  12. Falling Diphthong*

    Advent calendars: any cool recommendations? I’m into food, art, science, craft; not into skin care or luxury products.

    Last year someone recommended the Bonne Maman Advent Calendar with 24 festive jams, and I wound up getting copies for myself and both (grown and launched) kids. My younger child really liked the jams but was interested in something different.

    For the traditional paper version, the Bodleian Library at Oxford has one with old books, which I really like, but it’s the same one every year.

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    2. Blomma*

      For the past 2 or 3 years, we’ve done the Bonne Maman jam advent calendar and one from David’s Tea. We have the jam with toast, yogurt, etc and pair it with the tea. I have already ordered both for this year! : )

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  13. Bike Walk Barb*

    Trying new things–

    What’s something you’ve tried recently to stretch yourself in new directions without necessarily expecting you’ll be good at it, or to try something that has always interested you?

    I’ve been signing up for classes through our local parks/rec department since January and really enjoying the opportunity for super low cost learning along with meeting people in the town we moved to during the early pandemic.

    Improv has been a favorite; they keep offering and I keep taking the short scenes class again. We now have an Improv Friends Club that gets together on the breaks between class sessions.

    I signed up for Creative Contemporary Dance knowing that I don’t have the flexibility or strength of someone who’s trained in dance. Went to my first class Monday and have already forgotten all the choreography she taught us so this will be humbling week after week.

    Hula hoop class starts next Friday and I really can’t wait for that one. Should be tons of fun.

    My husband and I have taken multiple rounds of swing dance classes and it makes for a great date night.

    My future list includes taking Intro to Drawing, something I don’t expect to be awesome at but would love to try.

    What’s stretching your learning chops in a good way?

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