alierak: (Default)
alierak ([personal profile] alierak) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2025-06-30 03:18 pm

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.
canadiangirlgeek: (Self Portrait)
Canadian Girl Geek ([personal profile] canadiangirlgeek) wrote in [community profile] addme2025-06-30 08:34 am

(no subject)

Name: Val

Age: 47

I mostly post about: Being Gen-X, Canadian, ramblings of day to day life, my mental health, sometimes the state of the world (though I try to keep that to a minimum), what I'm currently reading, Nelson shenanigans (my cat)

My hobbies are: I knit and crochet; writing, watching movies/television (mostly drama and British telly), reading, 'cozy' colouring with alcohol markers, music (love to listen to new things)

My fandoms are: I used to be very into fandoms 10 or so years ago, but not so much anymore. It can be exhausting.

I'm looking to meet people who: above all, are kind. 20+ of age, and have some interests in common. It would be ideal if you like to comment on entries.

My posting schedule tends to be: aiming for daily, but likely a few times a week. I'm journaling again at the suggestion of my therapist.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: the usual: racism, anti-LGBTQIA+. I used to be a big Harry Potter fan, but no longer and I generally stay away from those who still embrace the fandom, JKR, and the books/movies.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a very kind and sensitive person and try to be thoughtful and respectful when commenting on others entries, so I hope to receive the same in return. Also, I have an odd sense of humour and I use "LOL" and "<3" a lot.
theharbourreader: (Default)
Blyhe ([personal profile] theharbourreader) wrote in [community profile] addme2025-06-29 03:35 pm

(no subject)

Name: Blythe
Age: 37

I mostly post about:
Life on the Cornish coast, daily swims in the sea, studio days at the pottery wheel, what’s blooming in the garden, what I’m reading (mostly mid-century women writers), the small rituals that keep me steady, and occasional thoughts on slow living and soft rebellion.

My hobbies are:
Ceramics, sea swimming, baking things that go with tea, reading literary fiction (especially anything with layered domestic dynamics and quiet emotional collapse), pressing flowers into notebooks, and making seasonal playlists.

I'm looking to meet people who:
Write or read with heart, find beauty in the everyday, value kindness, know the pleasure of a well-brewed pot of tea, or also spend entire evenings choosing which notebook to start. Anyone who understands that joy and sadness often walk hand in hand.

My posting schedule tends to be:
Softly inconsistent— I'm aiming for 2-3x week, sometimes once a week, sometimes three times in a day if I’m feeling chatty or emotionally unspooled. Usually seasonal—more reflective in winter, more playful in summer.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
Cruelty, racism, snobbery, homophobia, transphobia, or taking yourself far too seriously. I’m not here for edge for edge’s sake.

Before adding me, you should know:
I write a little like I talk—long, meandering, full of parentheses and feelings. I will absolutely comment on your post about moss or jam or the book you half-finished three years ago. I’m not perfect, but I’m trying to be soft on purpose.
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
marycatelli ([personal profile] marycatelli) wrote in [community profile] books2025-06-29 01:18 pm

Babylon White

Babylon White by Kit Sun Cheah

The grand conclusion! Spoilers for earlier books ahead.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote in [community profile] followfriday2025-06-27 12:38 am
Entry tags:

Follow Friday 6-27-25

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

rocky41_7: (Default)
rocky41_7 ([personal profile] rocky41_7) wrote in [community profile] books2025-06-26 06:12 pm

"The Monster Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson

The day after finishing The Traitor Baru Cormorant I had to rush over to the library to pick up book 2, The Monster Baru Cormorant, which I finished earlier today.

Spoilers for The Traitor Baru Cormorant below!
 
The second book of a fantasy series of any kind often bears a very difficult burden. It is most often the place where the scope of the story grows significantly. A conflict which before was local to the protagonist's home and surrounding area may expand, often to the extent of the known world. New players are often added to the cast, bigger and scarier problems and challenges arise. The protagonist may have gone up in the world, wielding new power and influence, with new responsibilities. As a result, this is where many series lose their footing; a tightly-woven book or season 1 may give way to a muddled, watered down part 2 as the writers struggle to juggle this expanded focus. 
 
The Monster suffers from none of those things. It is the place where Baru's story expands—in The Traitor, her focus was almost entirely on Aurdwynn; it was the full field of play and outside players mattered only as they influenced events on Aurdwynn. In The Monster, Baru has become a true agent of the Imperial Throne of Falcrest, and with these new powers, the entire field of the empire is opened up for her play, and it is fascinating to watch. 
 
In The Traitor, Baru was narrowly focused on managing the situation in Aurdwynn; everything she did was to that end. In The Monster, Baru can do whatever she wants, and we get to see her finally on the open field. Even where she flounders and flails, it's delightful to watch the machinations of her mind constantly at work.  Her cleverness rows against her bursts of sentimentality to produce some impressively chaotic effects, but she is as slippery as an eel to pin down, even when her rivals think they've gotten the best of her.

Read more... ) 
 

rocky41_7: (Default)
rocky41_7 ([personal profile] rocky41_7) wrote in [community profile] books2025-06-25 05:38 pm
Entry tags:

"Sundial" by Catriona Ward

I don't actually remember where I saw Catriona Ward's Sundial recommended, but it was somewhere and convincing enough to get it on my TBR. I finished the audiobook this week so it's time to reflect.
 
Sundial is a domestic psychological thriller which focuses on the relationship between the protagonist Rob and her eldest daughter Callie. Or at least, that's what the novel summary posits. A good 50% or more of the book is actually about Rob's youth and her relationship with her childhood family, primarily her twin sister, Jack. I didn't get that at first, which led to me being slightly frustrated by the length of the "flashback" sections until I realized that they were at least half the true focus of the story.
 
Ward excels in capturing the petty toxicity of a domestic environment gone sour. Especially deftly handled are the ways in which a partner can wound in such seemingly mundane ways. Many of the exchanges between Rob and her husband, Irving, come off as completely innocuous to an outsider, but to the two people in the relationship, who have the context for these seemingly nothing interactions, the full cruelty of them is on display. This adds completely believably to the tension between Rob and Callie, who has long favored her father, and who sees her mother's responses as hysterical overreactions, because she doesn't have the context that Rob does. Ward also very neatly portrays a truly vicious marriage, where both parties have given up pretending they want to be together, at least to each other, and where the entire relationship has become an unending game of oneupsmanship, trying to get one over on your spouse.
 
Adding to this suffocating atmosphere is Callie, a very strange 12-year-old who is starting to exhibit some very troubling behavior, particularly in her interactions with her 9-year-old sister, Annie. Rob has always struggled to connect with Callie—in contrast with Irving, who happily spoils her to force Rob to be the bad guy enforcing boundaries—but when Callie is thought to have attempted to poison Annie with Irving's diabetes medication, Rob decides it's time she and Callie have a real heart-to-heart. 
 
So she takes Callie on a mother/daughter trip to Rob's childhood home, Sundial, an isolated family property out in the Mojave desert.