Oda (Gretchen)

Books
Trouble the Saints, by Alaya Dawn Johnson. A mob assassin deals with her destiny and her ghosts in a manifest way. It would be an urban fantasy if it weren't about racism in the 1930s and 40s; it's not quite horror except in the way that all stories about that time with protagonists of color necessarily are. I really enjoyed or at least appreciated the way the destiny worked itself out.
One Extra Corpse, by Barbara Hambly. Second in her Hollywood murder mysteries. I really liked the final twist in this one but the leadup, with Communists and socialists in the film industry, and the side plot of the queer actor trying to get the protagonist to be his beard, were pretty good too.
Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life, by Julie Morgenstern. This is the second edition, which is still super good as an overall read for organization purposes, but is sadly dated with its tech advice (see: Palm Pilots and Blackberries). I think she needs to have advice on how to manage EOLing your computer systems every five years.
Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century, by W. David Marx. I've had this discussion, though never laid out in this kind of detail or with any kind of thoroughness, many times with my friends and peers. It explains why so much of current-day content is so unengaging and also explains a lot about the awfulness of American politics. They're tied together. The dude's a snob but he's not wrong.
Sargassa, by Sophie Burnham. Alternate history Roman thriller with a twist in which the Imperial historian, her family, and more try to figure out who killed her father and predecessor and what the Macguffin he was protecting was. Nice twisty plot and the big one is foreshadowed but I didn't expect things to go there, exactly. I'm definitely in for the next one.

Short Stories
"'Brokeheart' GPT" or "A Superintelligent Being Reads Pat Rosal", by Micaiah Johnson. This is another one of those where explaining the twist would kill the fun of reading this story. It's worth reading.

Music
Eric Lu, Schubert: Impromptus, Opp. 90 & 142. Another one of those composers whose work I am still learning enough about to have opinions. Played with great zest.
Jenny on Holiday, Quicksand Heart. Female fronted pop. I'm going to need to listen to it a couple more times to decide whether I just like it or really like it.
Augustin Bousfield, Anymoor. Another synthpop album I listened to after hearing the single on Youtube. Not enough to be an absolute favorite but again, definitely liked it.

We're eating out/doing delivery a lot right now because we don't have a working kitchen. So I'm documenting some of the place we're eating here.

Cane Rosso. Local chain. We get pizza from them when I'm not in the mood because they have nice pasta. They had brisket lasagna and it was so thick and delicious. The pizza is fine but that brisket lasagna stays on the list.

Birdie's Eastside. We had the brisket queso, which was new to me and quite good, and I had their fried chicken sandwich, which has pimento cheese and hot honey. This also stays on the list.

Norma's Cafe. This is one of the best places in town for chicken fried steak. The sides were at best OK (the mac and cheese got some help from Tony Chachere) but the steak itself and the cream gravy were very good even on delivery.

Steakyard (which autocorrect wants to turn into "Steelyard"). One of our local steak frites places, which is a thing here. This one isn't too expensive but I'm not crazy about their brandy peppercorn sauce. What I did like was the cremini mushrooms, which cut the pepper in the sauce to a level I enjoy more, and were in general a nice complement to the steak. They come back on the list, which they were off of for a while.

MiYa Chinese. Sister to Wok Star and despite the fact that Wok Star is free on DoorDash and MiYa is not, we order from MiYa more often. They do fantastic dumplings, a great fried flat rice noodle, and a number of other dishes we just like better than Wok Star. Our favorite local Chinese place.

I think this one is slightly different to the one I've been doing but it's also one I know I've done before.

( 40 questions under the cut. )