Hiiiii dearest Deadsplinterati! It’s starting to feel festive in our house. We dressed the tree and hung up outdoor lights. I’m on track to complete 100 books by NYE. We’re throwing a party tomorrow night. All things are looking up as long as I avoid the news. As DS tradition dictates, I have watched a bunch of holiday movies and will be reporting on them shortly. Let’s start with the books:
The Terraformers and Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. They are pretty fucking accomplished and I love their books. I highly recommend both! I just started reading Autonomous. From Wikipedia:
“is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction. From 1999 to 2008, Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column called Techsploitation, and from 2000 to 2004 was the culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2004, Newitz became a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. With Charlie Jane Anders, they also co-founded Other magazine, a periodical that ran from 2002 to 2007. From 2008 to 2015, Newitz was editor-in-chief of Gawker-owned media venture io9, and subsequently its direct descendant Gizmodo, Gawker’s design and technology blog.”
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida is a cozy Japanese novel about a community that is linked together by its convenience store. It’s like a collection of short stories of people who frequent said store but there are multiple characters who pop up or are referenced in each story.
A Dragon Rider’s Guide to Retirement by Julia Huni. A light romantasy novel about a retired dragon rider and a retired war witch from opposing nations who both settle in a neutral country/island. It was a bit too PG for me, zero spice. The dragon element wasn’t interesting. They were likened to domesticated dogs. I prefer snarky sentient dragons. I did enjoy the war witch’s menopausal flare ups (literal ones) and openness about menopause. It’s fun when books don’t shy away those things. To that point here’s an article about it in film: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/geena-davis-institute-menopause-films-1236601041/
The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore (totally a nom de plume meant to invoke Gilmore Girls nostalgia). Main character moves to a small town to run a café that she inherited from her aunt. She falls for the flannel clad farmer of few words and many muscles. The townies are all endearing gossips. They are nosy but got your back. There are currently five books in the series.
Drome by Jesse Lonergan is a graphic novel with very little written words. I’ve never read/looked at anything like it. For lack of a better term he is an auteur. His grid style drawings conveyed movement in time and space in such a visceral way. It’s hard for me to explain. Check it out. TW: it’s violent.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller. Another author that I’m happy to have discovered this year. Similarly to the Convenience Store book, this one reads like a collection of short stories. Set in a small southern town, a small minded woman seeks attention by leading the community in banning books from the library and sets up a Free Little Library in front of her house stuffed with books which promote her conservative views. An intrepid young woman switches all the books out with banned texts but hides them within the conservative book jackets. One by one a conservative townie picks a book and is schooled. It’s very satisfying but also totally strives to humanize the townies. I feel like the author is trying to convince her southern/conservative readers that they can learn and grow their views without compromising their core values.
Holiday Movies rated out of five
I must say that I’m a tad bit disappointed that there isn’t a new Lindsey Lohan or Vanessa Hudgens movie out. But they are busy having babies, so I forgive them.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas: 🎄🎄🎄 I liked the decor and setting.
Champagne Problems: 🍾🍾🍾🍾 cute, cozy, some funny moments, hot French dude.
My Secret Santa: 🎁 Skip this one. Cringe Kringle all the way.
Jingle Bell Heist: 💎💎💎💎 fancy English department store, Robin Hood thief, bashful bloke from Sex Education.
Oh. What. Fun. : didn’t have time to watch this one yet. Does Michelle Pfeiffer sleigh? Judging purely based on the trailer I give it 🛷🛷🛷
Don’t forget to watch Home for Christmas! It is still my favorite Xmas thing to watch every year. Season 3 drops on the 12th. I’ve been waiting years for it!
Happy Holidays to all you wonderful people. Hug your loved ones. Treat yourself. Report back to us about what media you’re consuming and what shenanigans you’re getting up to.
…several things beyond new newitz to thank you for pointing out…but…even before I do go check out drome…which I shall…even just from your description it makes me think of something I don’t think this is the only other example of but is certainly my go to?
https://www.peterkuper.com/the-system
…it’s a comic…but there’s no dialogue…there’s no captions…the only text is effectively “incidental” in that it forms part of the image…like a billboard or a headline or a chyron on a tv…but he still manages to run comprehensible intersecting narratives about multiple characters across…not lots by comics standards…but a decent number of pages
…it’s a pretty neat trick if you can pull it off so I guess I’m off to go find out more about drome fairly shortly?
Cool! Adding this to my list!
Watching A Man On the Inside and Untamed.
I enjoy Untamed for the views of the wilderness. The story is compelling.
A Man On the Inside is a more tougher watch because of what mom and dad have gone/are going thru. I like the story and the retirement community is much nicer than the dementia ward dad is in, but it feels a little too soon for me despite the fact I’m watching/enjoying it.
…I did eventually succumb to whichever lot it was that wanted my view while they were counting so I saw “she rides shotgun”…&…mixed bag, really?
…lot of solid elements…wouldn’t call it bad…doesn’t waste too much time vacillating over whether or not the protagonist is the threat or the saviour…but enough to not have the kid seem unreasonably cool with what’s happening…& there are some well-respected dramatic conventions that could adequately explain why they wanted to run that through to the conclusion they arrived at with it…but…the desire to hit their marks so the coda plays kinda made the big finish distractingly “ok – but why, tho?” for me
…the vox machina bunch from…what’s it…critical role…have another one that’s cartoons now called the mighty nein
…the holdovers would be a holdover from at least one festive season before this…& I haven’t watched it yet so I don’t know if the family plan 2 option has mark wahlberg pulling off a chirstmas grosse pointe blank any more than I can remember if the first one was a festive season sort of an impromptu road trip with the kids who don’t know their dad is an assassin…so…kinda light on the seasonally appropriate suggestions, I suppose
…been meaning to get around to the ballad of a small player but the truth is I defaulted to things that I don’t feel bad about not entirely paying attention to…so I started a couple of things that seem fairly entertaining & equally but very differently silly?
…one goes by “future man”…& seems to have been around since 2020…it’s like a cross between the last starfighter & galaxy quest except on a thin TV budget that’s decently self-aware with a protagonist who is the janitor in the lab that will one day destroy the timeline
…the other takes its liberties with the past rather than the future & is fresher…last samurai standing…give or take the scene setting…sort of like the long walk if kurosawa did it…or an arc of sakamoto days played in earnest as live action set in a period when swords & knives outnumber guns…it seems pretty bonkers…but…I expect I’ll keep watching it?
Future Man! How I cackled through that whole series. I ❤️ Wolf and Tiger and feel bad for Josh Hutcherson because it seems his character isn’t far off from his real life personality but ❤️ him too. He’s too sweet.
Trailer for @farscythe
(I saw that Netflix picked it up and I forgot to recommend it to you both)
neato! good timing too as my month off starts today…sooo..this and the new season of stranger things and fallout should at least get me through some of all that time off
nothing much to add on my end tho…ive been kinda holding off watching and reading things till my holiday started….and today was dragging the tree home and decorating day..sooo really…ive only just about parked my ass now to go play a little final fantasy and then probably sleep….coz im knackered
I watched “The Wrath of Becky” which was a silly, super violent movie but still a fun ride and good way to get out your Nazi hate.
but now it is time to chill out…
One of these weekends I’m going to watch the only 2 Christmas movies I genuinely like –
Elf
A Bad Moms Christmas
I love the demented nature of Elf. They had me in the intro talking about elves working as bakers in trees and the trees catching fire.
It’s festive as fuck over here. Too goddamn festive if you ask me. I’m supposed to go to a Christmas party tonight and I hate parties. I hope they at least have a dog or cat I can pet while I sit in the kitchen with my back to the wall. But Mrs Luigi likes parties, so I’ll go and put on a brave face.
You’re a good man.