The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin
Oct. 30th, 2025 08:49 am
A fairy's efforts to recover stolen arcane tools via illicit means produce spectacular calamity.
The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin


What I read
Finished Encampment, which was brilliant, and intense.
So intense that I had to decompress with a brief Dick Francis binge: Driving Force (1992) - a bit subpar I thought, slow start, massively convoluted plot; Wild Horses (1994) - the one involving a paraphilia I actually did a post here on back when, and making of a movie; Twice Shy (1981) which has a lot of v retro though presumably at the time cutting-edge computer nerdery involving programs on cassette tapes.
On the go
Have started - this was while I was out and about in the world last week - Peter Parker's Some Men in London: Queer Life, 1960–1967 (Some Men in London #2) (2024), since I was recording a podcast last week with the author and he assured me it was somewhat less of a downer than the previous, 1950s, volume. I think it may be a dipper-in over some while.
Still dipping in to Readers' Liberation - liked the first chapter, which is about what readers bring to the book, the second seems a bit heavier going.
Eve Babitz, Eve's Hollywood (1974) - perhaps not quite as good as Slow Days, Fast Company, but it was her first published work.
Up next
No idea: have just sent off for The Scribbler Annual but no idea when it's likely to arrive.

Not sure these links are particularly appropriate, but maybe so.
Well, I do remember her saying she scarcely noticed The Change, though she did nuance that statement by adding that she had so much else going on at the time (eldercare and other stuff) she didn't have time to notice:
Yet more on monetising the menopause: Menopause getting you down? Don’t worry, the wellness industry has a very pricey solution for you.
I am probably being horribly cynical, but when somebody goes for a home birth after a first high risk experience of parturition, one does wonder if some kind of wellness woowoo was in the mix (“She had read or heard somewhere that there was less chance of bleeding at home and that is why she wanted a home birth.”)? but this is a dreadful story: 'Gross failure’ led to deaths of mother and baby in Prestwich home birth.
This is also a really grim story about reproductive politics in Brazil: Two More Weeks: The Brutality Behind Brazil’s Reproductive Politics:
In complicated childbirth scenarios, when the life of the pregnant person and the fetus are in conflict, therapeutic abortion has historically been considered the last resort. But in Brazil, since the nineteenth century, this solution has been replaced by the cesarean operation. This was not based on medical reasons. Cesarean sections, up until the early twentieth century, were rudimentary procedures, almost always fatal to the birthing person. What motivated its adoption in Brazil was based on different logics: religious, legal, and moral. The cesarean became an acceptable alternative to abortion because it allowed the fetus to be born, even if the birthing parent died. The nineteenth-century theological and medical debates that gave rise to this sacrificial logic still shape birth in Brazil.



But I am so, so fed up of people who use 'silver bullet' when they mean 'magic bullet'!
Silver bullets kill things, werewolves, mostly, right; or just generally Bad Guys when fired by the Lone Ranger.
Magic bullets Do Good - like curing sifilis, thank you Ehrlich and Hato, they are targeted remedies.
Also, however hyperliterate I am myself and have been from a young age, I don't think it's the panacea proposed here: There is a silver bullet for childhood happiness: a love of reading.
Just because she (and I and I daresay many of you who are reading this) found our happy place in reading, doesn't mean it's going to be that for all children.
I am entirely there for emphasising the role of pleasure in reading, for
meeting children where they are. It means allowing children to read books that might be perceived as too old and too young for them; it means relishing your child’s love for comics and heavily illustrated books
But I don't think this is For Everyone any more than Going Out and Playing In the Nice Fresh Air.
And on that, I really liked this: Children should have a right to play in the streets, alleys, pavements and car parks of their neighbourhoods. Refers to a letter about children playing in streets, etc, rather than in designated playgrounds and parks:
It assumes that children should be “taken” to designated play spaces, rather than allowing for the possibility that children should be able to access playable space without adults. And, finally, it fails to acknowledge that parks and other green spaces afford only certain kinds of play, and that children demand – and deserve – diverse spaces for diverse forms of play, not just ball games, swings and slides.
Which 2020 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
1 (2.3%)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
37 (84.1%)
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4 (9.1%)
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
13 (29.5%)
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
1 (2.3%)
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
18 (40.9%)
I thought last week's bread was holding out pretty well until it suddenly sprouted mould - however there was still some cornbread left + rolls.
Having been out for lunch on Friday I was not feeling like anything much for supper but made partner a Spanish omelette with red bell pepper and had some fruit myself.
Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, strong white flour, turned out v nice.
Today's lunch: Crispy Baked Sesame Tofu - not sure whether there should not have been some actual sesame seeds somewhere in the mix? also thought maybe I was a bit cautious with the amount of tamari in the sauce - and didn't think this turned out particularly crispy....; served with sticky rice with lime leaves, baked San Marzano tomatoes and mangetout peas stirfried with star anise.