april 2025
did april not really happen for anyone else? i swear i blinked and here we were. sometime during that instant, i unpacked my kitchen, got the laundry room and living room kind of set, and discovered we managed to break the tv in the move. i’m not processing that last one yet; check back later. i also learned the basics of electrical wiring and have taken to gazing wistfully at nice tool chests on the internet. normal homeowner stuff, i assume.
read: All’s Fair Series by Josh Lanyon (2010-2017). this is another Lanyon series i put off reading because it involves 2 federal agents (one retired) and a serial killer, neither of which are areas of particular interest for me, but Lanyon won me over yet again. Protagonist Elliot has settled into his new life as a history professor after an injury in the line of duty left him disabled, but he agrees to look into the disappearance of a student for friends of his father. That brings him back into contact with ex-colleagues, and ex-lover, and the career he once loved. I enjoyed the push-pull of Elliot’s old life and his new one, and really loved that he is just a straight-up nerd (he builds miniature battlefield scenes for fun).
read: Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian (2022). A sweet novella about two largely clueless guys holed up in a house in Western North Carolina. Like a lot of Sebastian’s works there’s no plot per se, but it worked in this case mostly because of how prickly both Luke and Billy are (prickly romance protagonists my only weakness). I also enjoyed the glimpse into life as MLB players in the 1950s.
game: Rise of the Golden Idol (2024). the sequel to 2022’s The Case of the Golden Idol, this is a good crunchy puzzle game of the fill-in-the-blanks type.
read: Head for Murder by Chase Connor (2023). A queer cozy mystery set in small town Iowa, this follows the owner of a small bookstore as he gets pulled into—you guessed it—solving a murder. The standout element of this is the character of the town itself. It’s definitely a fake cozy mystery town, but it feels unique compared to others of the type. Maybe it’s just that it’s in Iowa.
film: Sinners (2025). Not linking to a trailer, because if you can go see this blind, I highly recommend it (I only heard about it the day before I saw it). This is a genre twisty Southern gothic set in the 1930s deep south and it RIPS. it’s pulling from multiple story traditions and doing right by all of them. also anytime they let Ludwig Göransson off the leash i am there in the front row, hollering.
game: Pentiment (2022). I have been aware of Pentiment vaguely for a while, as a medieval murder mystery? Which wasn’t wrong. There ARE murders and you do investigate them. Do you solve them? Unclear. Do you solve other things? Yes. Set in the 16th century in a town in Bavaria near a Benedictine monastery, Pentiment initially follows an artist working on an illuminated manuscript to establish his mastery and set up shop in Nuremberg. After a murder takes place, he investigates, and the accusations he makes subsequently inform the lives of the townspeople and the fate of the abbey. It’s a much bigger game than it seems at first, and the design of it, incorporating images from and elements of actual illuminated manuscripts, is incredibly good. I will be replaying it for certain.
book: A Suitable Consort (For the King and His Husband) by R. Cooper (2021). i almost left this off the list despite enjoying it because the title is SO tropey. but my royal council (group chat) persuaded me to own up to it, so here it is: I read this romance novel about a royal couple falling in love with their librarian, and I liked it! to mine own self i have been true.
dog:
cat:
