Xray the Enforcer

Moved on to non-fiction for a bit. Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in New York City by Elon Green focuses on the lives of the gay and bisexual men murdered by the so-called Last Call Killer, a serial killer who found each of them in piano bars across NYC in the early 90s. I generally hate true crime, but I took a chance with this one because Green focused almost entirely on the lives of the men before they were murdered, and more broadly on the gay community in NYC that persevered, and even flourished, despite the vicious homophobia that pervaded every institution (and especially the NYPD) and interaction in the country at that time. Anyway, I think Green succeeded in his goal to avoid the pitfalls of the genre and he even made me miss visiting Marie's Crisis, which is truly something. A worthwhile read if you have any interest in NYC, the lives of closeted gay men, and especially the history of the gay community centered in Greenwich Village/Chelsea. Now reading: The Women's House of Detention: The Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan. Hoooooboy I've been looking forward to this one for awhile. Ryan digs into the history of the "House of D," a notorious women's prison in Greenwich Village and especially how it was a nexus of lesbian, masculine of center, and transmasc community from the 19th century until it was shut down in 1974. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm already fully on board with this book because of Ryan's care for his work and his explicitly abolitionist framework. One oft-blurbed portion of the book details how one could actually see the Stonewall Inn from the upper windows of the prison, and when the Stonewall Riots kicked off, the women in House of D staged their own riot, setting fire to their belongings and throwing them out the windows onto the streets below while chanting "gay rights!" Will report back once I've finished it, but damn I'm loving this already.

Still reading One Night in the Lonesome October because I'm trying to not read ahead of the book chronologically. Finished The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang and it's very good. For those who love stories about "The Chosen One" or messiahs, and all of the issues that this kind of story entails, you might enjoy this one. Without getting into spoilers, I'll also flag that this book relies on unreliable narrators, which I found a little challenging at times. Anyway the book also involves giant battle space mechas. Now enjoying It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror a collection of essays by queer and trans writers on the many connections between queerness and horror films; each writer tackles and analyzes a single horror film through this lens. Only three or so essays in but they've all been excellent thus far. Anyway, if you're queer and a horror fan, there will definitely be something in here for you. If you're an ally and a horror fan, you'll definitely gain some insight into queer/trans experiences.

I mean I could also be very wrong and you both are correct. I read the book pretty quickly.

One thing that's been bugging me in Nona:

very mild spoilers for Nona

@Caligula_K3 -- Karaddin posted a recap earlier in this thread. It's under a spoiler tag, but let me see if I can find the posts. Here's where that conversation starts -- because I realized that I had probably missed or forgotten a bunch of stuff. Anyhoo, the next few posts, especially by Karaddin, can get you up to speed on what happened in the prior two books (esp HtN) to prep you for what's going on. I will say that Nona the Ninth is much more straight-forward, narratively. Very little of the (spoilers for Harrow the Ninth):

Current reads: One Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny -- Annual re-read. Each chapter of the book takes place on a single day in the month of October, so you could feasibly just read each chapter on its appropriate day in the run up to Halloween. (early chapters are pretty short but they grow more substantial as the month/book goes on.) The Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin -- Engaging urban fantasy set in contemporary London. In terms of tone/approach, this is much more Neil Gaiman than, say, Ilona Andrews. Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang -- Have only made it through one chapter thus far (got distracted by the above two books) but I'll pick this back up soon. Necromantic Sword Lesbians in Space vol III by Tasmyn Muir -- Loved it. Despite a ton of flashback interludes, this narrative is a lot more linear than vol II. Current thread on the book uses spoiler tags and @karaddin helpfully posted some "the story up through vol II" recaps for those who need a refresher.

Necromancing this thread because skin care is an ongoing endeavor! So I learned something over the last six or so months: My skin has changed so much that mineral-based sunscreens are now too drying for me to use. I've tried 15 or 20 of them at this point and none of them are suitable for long-term use. So I went back to the drawing board and have now landed on using a moisturizer with chemical sunscreens and I found one that works with whatever the hell is going on with my skin these days and LOL it's not even that expensive: La Roche Posay Tolerain 30SPF. My skin is stupid as hell.

It really is. I kind of want to adopt a dog now just so I can name it that. Or adopt a really grumbly cat.

@karaddin I'll dig up the quote, just a sec. Also thank you for the run-down on the necros and their cavs. All of that makes sense. One thing about why Augustine hates Cristabel: And regarding Ulysses:

oh and and re: Pyrrha

Some more questions about Lyctors

Spoilers for AIM/the Angel through the end of the book and also for Nona

For real tho. That would have been the most perfect ending. I hadn't been watching the game until the final AZ drive in regulation, but I just learned that Arizona had ZERO points at the half (LV had 20), which makes that ending just even that more pleasing.

WUT ahahahahahahaha