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Pretty Terrible

Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs

January 31, 2021

Recent Reading, January 2021

I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading these days, which has been really great. I feel like I’ve found my reading mojo again–finally. So here’s a few things I’ve read recently:

First up is Eva Leigh’s Union of the Rakes series. These two books were a lot of fun–fluffy Regency romance with protagonists of a scientific and economic bent, respectively. I’ll likely pick up the third book when it comes out.

So then I decided to read Eva Leigh’s Wicked Quills of London series. The first two books in the series, Forever Your Earl and Scandal Takes the Stage did what they said on the tin–women writers trying to make a go of it in a world that gave them short shrift and they were both delightful and somewhat plausible–as plausible as any wallpaper romance is, at least.

The third book, Temptations of a Wallflower, was absolutely dire. I had to force myself to finish it, because I hate DNFing books.

It was so stilted and hard to read and so many things about it were just unbelievable. I didn’t believe the central conceit of the book, that Sarah was secretly writing erotic novels that were selling like hotcakes in Regency London–she has no friends but spends hours a day in a room writing correspondence and her family never stops to ask who she’s writing to? I didn’t believe that Jeremy’s father was given an earldom for being morally and ethically upright and I didn’t believe that Jeremy was so tied to his father’s purse-strings that he’d take on a ridiculous quest like “find the person who is writing these dirty books and unmask them so your father can continue to be seen as a morally superior human being” so he wouldn’t lose his allowance (on top of his living as a vicar). Also, the book makes it sound strange that Jeremy, as a third son, was a vicar–my recollection is that younger sons were often sent to make their way in the Church, so that was weird, too.

Honestly, the book felt like it was being written out of a sense of duty and that Leigh put a lot less care and effort into it than the other two in the series.

I also read the first issue of Mermaids Monthly, which I backed on Kickstarter. I love the concept of a limited series publication with a narrow focus, so I’m really looking forward to what the team does over the course of the year. That said, not everything in issue one really worked for me. What did work for me was Brigit Truex’s poem “Selkie” and Annika Barranti Klein’s “The Little Sea Maid.” I bounced pretty hard off of Patty Templeton’s story, “Pep and Luna’s”–both the voice and the conceit really didn’t work for me; it felt very contrived. And I wanted to love L.D. Lewis’s “From Witch to Queen and God,” which started out so strong and then faltered at the end; I think the ending needed more work and another editing pass to really meet the standard set by the first half of the story. The illustrations are great, especially the cover image. So overall, a bit of a mixed bag for me, but that doesn’t dim my enthusiasm for the project or for future issues.

And finally, I read T. Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones. I am not normally a horror reader. I really, really, really don’t like horror. But I trust Kingfisher (also known as Ursula Vernon) and that trust paid off and I liked the book well enough that it gets a proper-ish review. And I should probably disclose that Ursula is a friend.

Mouse has been asked to clean out her recently-deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina. Grandma was both a hoarder and an incredibly nasty human being, so this task is something that will take both physical and emotional fortitude–and when Mouse discovers the holler people through the journal of her step-grandfather, she finds that she’ll need every ounce of fortitude she can muster, and then some. There is a hound named Bongo and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that nothing bad happens to the dog. There’s also a colorful cast of characters, from the folks living at the commune across the way from the house to the barista at the town’s coffee shop. I really want to know Foxy’s backstory.

In many ways, The Twisted Ones reminded me of the novels of Barbara Michaels–but with the creep factor turned up to 1,000. In Michaels’s novels (which are sadly unappreciated nowadays), there’s always a heroine at loose ends who ends up having to deal with a house. There is often either a recently dead or almost dead malevolent grandmother, and there are intimations of supernatural happenings around the edges. Kingfisher takes those intimations and makes them real, in a visceral and terrifying way–but because the book is written by Mouse as her recollection of events, you’re always sure she’ll make it at the end.

Kingfisher’s voice comes through loud and clear in this book, it’s a practical and to the point sort of voice and I find it very comforting (I suspect that’s why A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking did so well–not only is it a wonderful book, it’s also so reassuring. Also Bob.). Even as Mouse is surrounded by horrors, there’s a sturdy practicality to her that grounds both the reader and the narrative.

Let me put it this way: I liked this book so much that I immediately started reading Kingfisher’s second horror novel, The Hollow Places. Even though I really, really, really don’t like horror.


Recent Reading, January 2021The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
Publisher: Saga Press
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Recent Reading, January 2021My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh
Publisher: Avon
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Recent Reading, January 2021Would I Lie to the Duke by Eva Leigh
Publisher: Avon
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Recent Reading, January 2021Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh
Publisher: Avon
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Recent Reading, January 2021Scandal Takes the Stage by Eva Leigh
Publisher: Avon
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Recent Reading, January 2021Temptations of a Wallflower by Eva Leigh
Publisher: Avon
Format: Ebook
Purchase: Amazon
Rating:

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Other Genres, Romance, Science Fiction Natalie Luhrs

January 23, 2021

Could I possibly catch a break now?

Oof. The last three months.

A few days after my last post, I ended up back in the hospital with E. coli again. I was inpatient for a week and a half and was sent home with IV antibiotics.

Thanksgiving week, I went to Jefferson for an ERCP for a pancreatic stent placement. It went well.

Finished up the course of IV antibiotics, and a week later, back in the hospital with E. coli for a week. Discharged with IV antibiotics until January 26. Also came home with a bit of a cough and sore throat (this is important).

Last half of December, was on vacation from work and it was great. Super chill and relaxing, took lots of naps.

First week of January: had my performance review and it was again a less than positive one–I was placed into the “needs improvement” category (the lowest) despite being told all year that I was on track to be “successful”–my manager said it “felt right” to put me there, despite the fact that I either accomplished or made tremendous progress on all my goals, because she decided I was inconsistent (giving no specific examples). So no merit increase and the bare minimum bonus again, this time after busting my ass and documenting it all year. The printout of my review is eight pages long and it’s because of everything I put in the system–and it’s not even everything, I summarized a lot. Before I became ill, I was ranked as high as it was possible to get–for me to suddenly become a poor performer after becoming disabled, despite not only doing the same work but taking on a lot of extra work, is certainly something.

Second week of January: I had a scheduled ERCP at Jefferson for a second pancreatic stent placement. Two days prior, I went for my pre-procedure Covid-19 test. It came back positive and my procedure was rescheduled for February. (See, I told you the cough and sore throat was important–I probably caught it in the hospital ER, I had those symptoms about a week after I spent 6 hours down there waiting for a treatment room.)

Third week of January: I get laid off. A lot of people got laid off and it was the sort of layoff that felt like a mandated cut of a certain percent of headcount. And since I had a track record of poor performance according to my manager… My last day of work–at a job I’ve had in one way or another for 18 years–is January 29. I’ll get full pay and benefits for two months after that, and then a severance package equal to 2 week of pay for every year of service. Which, for me, is 6 years since I was a contractor for the first 12/13 years. I haven’t actually seen the paperwork yet, because apparently they’re snail mailing it to me instead of emailing it.

Two days after the super-awkward meeting with my manager and HR, I’m back in the hospital with absolutely horrifying abdominal pain and nausea/vomiting. Which is where I am now, in fact. I have a horrible, loud roommate who has the TV on 24/7 and is constantly on the phone, sometimes both the room phone and her cell phone at once.

Infectious Disease is extending my IV antibiotics for an additional week, to cover me for the ERCP at Jefferson. There are possible plans to discharge me tomorrow. I have to “transition” my work to the one remaining analyst next week, which is going to be a joke because the remaining analyst is less that savvy when it comes to tech.

And here I am, trying to figure out how I’m going to find work in a pandemic while having a disability. I have a couple of leads that I just need to get my resume polished up for, but other than that, I think I’m going to take a bit of time to decompress and really work through what I want to do.

I also still don’t have my insulin pump because the DME hasn’t been doing the appropriate follow up and I’m having to chase every bit of paperwork through the system. They’ve had the paperwork since December 3. The American healthcare system is fucking ridiculous.

I would like to reboot 2021, please. I desperately need a break and I am struggling to see how I can make one happen.

But I will be available for freelance writing and spreadsheet wrangling starting February 1.

Or you could throw a in a few bucks at Ko-Fi and I’ll put it into savings for a rainy day. Because I’m sure there’ll be more than a few of those in the future.

Filed Under: Personal, Sick Natalie Luhrs

October 29, 2020

Some Positive News, For Once

Item the first: my follow up blood cultures are back and I no longer have bacteria in my blood! Yay!

Item the second: I had an appointment with my endocrinologist’s practice earlier this week and they’re going to start the process for an insulin pump! I have my first education appointment with one of their educators on Friday! Once I get the pump, I’ll have more education direct from the vendor (at least that’s how I understood it). So that’s very exciting: my quest to become more of a cyborg proceeds apace.

Endocrinology was also very happy with my overall level of control–it has gotten somewhat easier since I’ve been out of the hospital and off the IV antibiotics, but the last couple of days have been pretty rough. But not unmanageable.

And I’m feeling pretty good in my body this week, and I got my hair cut today and while I was at the salon I got to see an old friend, a woman I worked with for nearly a decade and who I hadn’t seen since before I got sick. We have the same stylist, it’s just that our appointments haven’t overlapped in a long time–but they did today, so we got to catch up and it was fantastic.

We will not talk about the gigantic amounts of frustration and stress that work is causing me right now.

And and and–my day trip down the shore last weekend was wonderful amazing perfect and I need to do it again.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Natalie Luhrs (@natalie.makes.stuff) on Oct 24, 2020 at 10:16am PDT

Filed Under: Personal, Sick Natalie Luhrs

October 21, 2020

Still Too Broken to Fix

This is going to be a boring-ass health update. Things are annoying and frustrating, but not acute.

[Read more…] about Still Too Broken to Fix

Filed Under: Personal, Sick Natalie Luhrs

August 17, 2020

Three Things Make A Post: August 17, 2020

  1. I read Harrow the Ninth last week and while I mostly enjoyed it, when I got to the end my main reaction was: I have questions, but there don’t seem to be any answers. It’s a psychotic fever-dream of a novel and it’s hard to keep the various plot threads straight–I felt like I needed to make a conspiracy theory wall to keep track. It was also just felt longer than Gideon the Ninth, which I adored, so I think Harrow needed to be more tightly edited. I much prefer Gideon’s narrative voice to Harrow’s–I felt like things picked up significantly when her voice came back into the narrative–so I don’t know what’s in store for Alecto the Ninth, which isn’t yet available for pre-order.
  2. I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks organizing my watercolors and I found it to be an immensely satisfying process. I also aggressively tidied my art space and there’s way less junk in the way, so I feel like I have space to breathe. I’ve been doing a lot with color glazing and geometry and it is just so calming and I’m trying to make time every day to paint.

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Natalie Luhrs (@natalie.makes.stuff) on Aug 10, 2020 at 7:17pm PDT

  3. I have no idea how I missed this video in 2016, but it gave me a little bit of extra life today and it’ll probably annoy the crap out of most of you, so win-win:

Bonus: I’ve been thinking a lot about this question: Who are you without the doing? It’s surprisingly difficult to answer.

Filed Under: Three Things Natalie Luhrs

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Hello! I’m Natalie Luhrs. I write about books and culture and whatever else strikes my fancy. I have so many opinions.

I was a nominee for the Best Fan Writer Hugo in 2017.

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2021 Reading Challenge
Natalie has read 6 books toward their goal of 50 books.
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