I just read a book I think would be up a lot of folks' alley: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. Much swashbuckling (SO much swashbuckling), pirates with hearts of gold, a 40-something lady pirate with a bad knee called away from well-earned retirement, all set in a richly developed 12th century Indian Ocean world, and did I mention the swashbuckling?

That does sound juicy, Susan.

I've been eyeing that, Susan - I enjoyed City of Brass and that series and I believe the pirate are related somehow. It sounds even more fun!

Currently listening to House With Good Bones (Kingfisher horror), which I'm enjoying a lot but realized a little too late in the evening makes very bad right before sleep reading. I mean, I actually realized that pretty early in the evening but did not successfully switch to listening to something else early enough. Specifically, there are vivid descriptions of sleep paralysis and nightmares, both of which I experience so that was gratifying to read but not helpful in getting a good night's rest!

In my ongoing dark academia binge, I'm reading Bunny, by Mona Awad. It is FUCKED UP, in an utterly delightful, deranged way.

I need to make a Venn diagram of the dark academia books I've read, so I can have categories like "Why Bunnies???" (Hell Bent; Bunny), "Getting Frankenstein-y" (Catherine House; Bunny), "Your School May Actually Be A Cult" (If We Were Villains; Catherine House), and "This Is What Happens When Students Form Cliques" (The World Cannot Give; Ninth House; If We Were Villains).

Oh, man, I came across a review of something described as Dark Academia that I thought I should tell you about that I don't think was any of those but I forgot the title. Maybe I can find it again...

I think it might have been Saturnallia by Stephanie Feldman?

Oooh, I'm putting that on my TBR list.

Another quick note on House With Good Bones - the mother of the POV character is approximately my age and I do not know how to feel about that.

Re: The House With Good Bones, my friend Eleanor at Borderland books is running a Creepy Girl Book Club for women who like disturbing horror.

I got to meet one of the young participants, Rebecca, and she was really fun.

I recommended the early 00s horror movie May by Lucky McKee and when I started to describe it, I said, "It's kind of a riff on the Frankenstein theme about this young woman who's a Vet Tech..."

And she interrupted, "OMG, I'm a Vet Tech!"

Later the conversation turned to the fling I had with my boss when I moved to Boston, and I was talking about her childhood saying, "Apparently in Filipino families it's not unusual for one daughter to obviously be The Favorite and everybody says that part out loud..."

And she said, "OMG, I'm filipino!" That makes her sound a little Valley Girl which she is not. She's tall and pretty with a bit of kauai style and a deadpan snarky humor.

Whenever she comes in we ask her how many castrations she's done that day, usually accompanied with a "snip snip" sound and hand gesture. "So much for the patriarchy" we all agree.

Re: Dark Academia, Eleanor is also a huge fan of this genre and has put up display shelves devoted to it, so I can easily get some recs from her.