I have no impulse control when it comes to putting books on hold, especially when they tell me I won’t get them for 12 weeks or something. But then they show up anfter only a few days. And my library switched up what happens when your hold does become available but you aren’t ready for it. Used to be able to kind of toss it back and just get back in the queue, now it gets suspended and you have to unsuspend it when you are ready. So I found myself with a bunch of suspended holds hanging over me knowing that if I don’t unsuspend within a year they will just, like, disappear? For some reason that prospect really stresses me out.
Wesley: Feng Shui. Gunn: Right. What's that mean again? Wesley: That people will believe anything. Actually, in this place, Feng Shui will probably have enormous significance. I'll align my furniture the wrong way and suddenly catch fire or turn into a pudding.
'Conviction (1)'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
-t - Dec 29, 2025 5:30:35 pm PST #28509 of 28558
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
JenP - Dec 29, 2025 6:15:36 pm PST #28510 of 28558
Exactly that flavor of stress! So I am trying a new thing this year with just not holding. And also pumping the brakes on my podcast fiction listening. So obsessed! No reading time! So. We shall see.
Jessica - Dec 30, 2025 6:59:39 am PST #28511 of 28558
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Cat Sebastian and Becky Chambers are both excellent winter reads. (I know some readers wish Cat Sebastian would get back to writing books with plots, but I am completely entranced by her crying-and-sweaters era and think she should write a hundred more if she wants.)
JenP - Dec 30, 2025 7:09:35 am PST #28512 of 28558
I will check out Cat Sebastian!
Jessica - Dec 30, 2025 7:27:14 am PST #28513 of 28558
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
We Could Be So Good or one of the Cabot novellas is a good place to start for her midcentury era. If you want a slightly more conventional histrom, go for The Queer Principles of Kit Webb (my personal favorite).
-t - Dec 30, 2025 8:40:39 am PST #28514 of 28558
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Jess's recs are good ones! BTW, I loved After Hours at Dooryard Books, as expected
JenP - Dec 30, 2025 8:43:30 am PST #28515 of 28558
Thanks for the recs -- always, always love the recs!
Jessica - Dec 30, 2025 8:47:18 am PST #28516 of 28558
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Speaking of Cat Sebastian, for folks experiencing a Heated Rivalry hangover, I'm currently rereading Season's Change by Cait Nairy, which I haven't seen pop up on any of the "What to read after HR" lists out there but which Cat Sebastian recommended when it came out as "weapons-grade idiots to lovers" and she is never wrong. Nairy's other two books aren't nearly as good but this one is a periodic reread of mine.
-t - Dec 30, 2025 9:00:37 am PST #28517 of 28558
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
See, this is why my library holds are out of control. Although this particular book is available immediately, so it is actually contributing to a different problem.
bennett - Dec 30, 2025 9:23:34 am PST #28518 of 28558
Seconding "After Hours at Dooryard Books". I'm not as big a fan or her 60s-era books as I am her more historical ones (I love, love love, "The Queer Principles of Kit Webb"), but Dooryard Books is a real comfort read.