Mar. 22nd, 2020

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There's not a lot to say about COVID-19 that has not been elsewhere said. My job supports patient care, though not directly; the work from home versus work onsite plan changes by the week. In the meantime, I maintain stabs at healthy eating between work projects, TV and reading marathons; walks with detours to avoid other humans; and calls to be An Old about people who do not understand
1.) what is six feet
1a.) how no grocery store in the United States is set up to keep six feet between customers
2.) why that unfitted N95 hanging by one elastic will not save you
2a.) boomer vs gen x vs millenial vs post-millenial coping mechanisms (and failures) in broad strokes
3.) new ways to count twenty seconds when washing one's hands, and
4.) how awesome is [book / TV show] of the day.

Last fall someone bought me a magnet proclaiming the post title. Well, who am I to argue with my friends and customers.
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From [personal profile] cahn et al came buzz about Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo) (2019). It's a fantasy/horror/thriller novel about a young woman who is let into Yale because she can see ghosts, which she does not consider any type of useful; and about a murder investigation, which eventually brings to the protagonist's attention the corruption underlying Yale's magical practices. 

I went in expecting Serious Lit and got Dumb Thriller. If I read this as the latter, rather than the former, it's probably a fine example of the genre. Too bad about the expectations. )

After poking at this for a couple of days, I have some additional thoughts:

1.) Yep, it's the first of a series. That would be why the ending chapters are a hot mess of incomplete plot threads, though the thematic untidiness is not as explicable.

2.) Somehow the timeline starts off with Alex Stern mentored by an enthusiastic but sometimes naive Daniel Arlington, with Sandow and Dawes lurking, and by the end of the novel it's Alex, Lethe alumna Michelle Alameddine, roomie Mercy, Dawes has been promoted to Pammie, and Alex is on speaking terms with her mom. It's a nice show of girl power.

2a.) I am here for Daniel Arlington, possible Princess In Need of Rescuing. Not quite as good as Peter Bishop, Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, but I'll take the gender-flipped tropes I can get.

3.) Maybe it's just my own "I don't hate you, I'm just hangry" issues, but Alex doesn't keep nearly enough random snacks on or near her person. Ice cream for breakfast isn't the same as that 2 pm stealth library snack.

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