(no subject)

I slept poorly last night, and had occupational therapy this morning, so when I woke again at about a quarter of seven, I got up, had tea, etc. This gave me more than enough time to stop for coffee beans before OT.

The OT itself was okay. Based on the ultrasound and massage, my arm muscles seem to be relaxing a bit more. But the therapist thinks I'm not ready to incring, and come back next week.

I had a beet salad for lunch after OT, again; this time the sun came out just as I was getting to Kickstand Cafe. I bought ice cream on my way home, and am thinking about some exercises other than the OT stuff for the wrist.

reading Wednesday

Apparently I haven't done one of these in two months. So:

Books I hadn't read before:

Paladin's Strength, by T. Kingfisher -- sequel to Paladin's Grace, another romance novel involving a (different) paladin of a recently-dead god

A Prayer for the Crown-shy, by Becky Chambers -- sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, further low-key adventures of a monk and their robot friend. This has the same gentle tone as most of Chambers' books, and it's about friendship

Red, White, and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston -- her first published novel, set in an alternate and much better 2020 than the one we got. Not bad, but if I'd read this first I might not have tried One Last Stop, which is a lot better.

The Missing Page, by Cat Sebastian -- sequel to "Hither, Page". At the end of this book, Leo and James are more settled emotionally, and talking about a future (in terms of "let's go to the seashore in a few months")

The Will and the Deed, by Ellis Peters -- a mystery novel, revolving around the estate and will of an opera singer who dies of natural causes at the beginning of the book. Not bad, very different from her Brother Cadfael books.

Fool's Gold, by Celia Lake -- another romance set in her England-with-magic Albion in the 1920s. I continue to enjoy these

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach, by Nnm (an AO3 pseudonym) -- Good Omens fanfic, about what happens when a demon walks into the office of a psychologist who specializes in treating people with PTSD. Someone mentioned this online, and I had a vague "maybe I'll reread it"--and apparently there are several different fanfics with this premise. Long, and I enjoyed it; if that description appeals, you might like it.

Beguilement and Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first two of her Sharing Knife books -- a romance in which both people are dealing with "you can't do that" first internally and then from their families, for reasons that are mostly "s/he's from a very different culture." It's \set in what feels like a fantasy far future of our world.

Vagina Obscura: an anatomical voyage, by Rachel E. Gross -- nonfiction, about women and different aspects of the (mostly cisgender) female body and reproductive system. "Vagina" here stands in for the vulva, womb, internal clitoris, and connected body parts. Gross talks about women's bodies, and knowledge of and beliefs about those bodies, now and in the past. The author notes that "female" is doing a lot of work here, and that categories are fuzzy. There's a lot here about the clitoris, and a chapter about some of the things ovaries do that aren't connected to reproduction. The book is relatively brief and the tone is mostly light, which includes footnotes like "Wait, what?" (on some of the weirder and/or more harmful things people have said, thought, and done. There are eight chapters, each focused on a different part of the body. Chapter 8 is titled "Beauty (Neovagina)" and gives some history of gender affirmation surgery as well as talking about the present and recent past.

My reading continues to be mostly mystery and/or romance.

---

Currently reading: Spirals in Time, by Helen Scales: non-fiction about seashells, some of the many different animals that have shells, and some of the things humans have used shells for.

apple: Molly Sheepnose

We bought three Molly Sheepnose apples at the farmers market yesterday, and I just tried one.

I am not impressed. The skin is thick, and the apple flesh doesn't taste like much. Adrian's comment was "I wonder whether, if we were to cook with it, we could make soomething as tasty as the RItz Cracker mock apple pie."

Since we have three, we will try another later, because sometimes there's significant variation even between apples of the same variety, picked at the same time. (I expect variation from year to year, and sometimes from place to place.)

Apparently "sheepnose" is another name for the Black Gilliflower apple. The apple information websites I was looking at say it ripens in September or October, and is better for cooking (baking, applesauce) or drying than just eating.