lunabee34

In the Kitchen or the Tulips by teddywesworl
Steddie
Soulmate AU

Ink-Stained and Love-Filled series by writersagainstwritersblock
Steddie
Steve gets Eddie to tattoo him. Multiple times.

the shame is on the other side by scoops_ahoy
Steddie
Steve finds acceptance in a gay bar.

off-script series by pukner
Steddie
Steve figures out he's bi before Eddie figures out that he's gay.

lonely is the night by intrajanelle
Steddie
Get-together post-season two.

Since You've Gone Universe
Steddie
Post-Vecna, Steve is the one in a coma.

1. Ha ha! I am vindicated.

So, my family will sometimes say stob for a small stump or a stick sticking up out of the ground or a broken off piece of fencing. Josh has insisted repeatedly over the years that this is not a real word and just something weird my family says. However, I'm reading one of Rick Bragg's memoirs and he uses the word stob, which prompted me to look it up in the dictionary and confirm it is indeed a real word and not just another example of the ways in which I belong to a bunch of hicks. I've always assumed it's a bastardization of the word stave.

2. Fiona is sick again. She has the flu now, and the pediatrician had us go to the hospital so she could get a chest x-ray (I guess their machine is better than the one at the pediatrician's, IDK). We haven't heard back about the results of the x-ray, but I really hope she doesn't have pneumonia again. I just don't understand why she keeps getting these respiratory things.

3. Dylan has a weird lump on her shoulder that we think might be lupus-related. The rheumatologist is sending her to an orthopedist to look at it (which makes no sense to me), so hopefully we'll know more about it soon.

4. I have to go to the dentist today. I've been putting it off as long as I can because I am a ding ding, but I hate going to the dentist so much. :(

5. We watched The Wild Robot on Netflix. Fiona loves the book(s?), and she was satisfied with the movie as an adaptation even though it made some minor changes to character and plot. All three of us ended up crying multiple times throughout; Josh popped into the living room at one point and turned heel and left again immediately. LOL Definitely worth a watch.

Infernally Yours (Or, the Epic Love Story of Sir Stefan the Brave and Orcus the Demon-Lord) by xoxoLadyAz
Steddie, Max/El, Nancy/Robin, Jonathan/Argyle
Steve starts playing DnD with the kids in '85.

so this is what the volume knob's for by greatunironic
Dustin and Erica gen
This is part of a series, but you don't need to read the other installments to read this one; all you need to know is that Steve has been presumed dead since Starcourt.

So Scarlet it Was Maroon by reskaye and t1red_gay
Steddie
I haven't been reading many of the Eddie is a vampire or Eddie comes back wrong fics, but this one caught my eye. Nice and angsty and partially epistolary with Steve writing letters to an Eddie he thinks he'll never see again.

Restless Heart Syndrome by IvoryWitch
Steddie
As Eddie recovers in the hospital, the sight of Steve keeps setting off his heart monitor. LOL

Movie Night by jk_rockin
Series
Steddie
Super hot smut.

Landslide by fullofbeansandspunk
Steddie
Eddie helps Steve explore music.

1. The semester is finished! I made myself sick Tuesday and Wednesday with the grading and the going to graduation (getting hot activates all my autoimmune stuff, and we couldn't eat lunch until like 2, which activated a migraine), but now it's done, and I'm so so glad. Last semester I went down to the wire grading and said never again, but I did it again this semester. I need to be firmer in my resolve not to procrastinate my grading.

2. Fiona has once again gotten the most AR points (this reading program they do) in the whole school. That's my genius baby.

3. I took Dylan to a new rheumatologist yesterday. We saw three people who worked together as a team to put together an investigative/diagnostic plan. I know it doesn't mean anything, but I've got hopes that these people might be able to help them.

4. We are watching Dragon Prince. The first 3 seasons were a rewatch, but now we're into the new seasons. It's such a good show. I love all the same-sex couples and the interracial couples and interspecies couples. It's just a damn good show.

5. Have a Stranger Things rec:

no retreat, baby, no surrender by alivingfire
Series where Hawkins is a post-apocalyptic hellhole after Vecna.
Steddie + Robin/Nancy

1. I got the most wonderful poems in the post from minoanmiss. Thank you! They are going to decorate my office.

2. I've been rereading the Murderbot books. I've finished all of them except Network Effect, which I just started today, and the most recently published one, which I've never read before. I love Murderbot so much.

3.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had never read this play and had somehow gotten a completely wrong impression of it. I thought it was long and tragic and deeply serious and full of soliloquies about the nature of power and monstrosity; instead, it's really short, mostly ridiculous, and a pretty breezy read. I mean, the postcolonial reading of the play appeals to me; there's definitely some heft and interest in interpreting Prospero as the colonizer and Ariel and Caliban as the colonized. (I also like Gonzalo's reference to Montaigne's "Of Cannibals.")

I suspect this is much more fun to watch than read; I bet the buffoonery is much funnier.

I'm a little confused by what happens at the end to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. Are they left behind on the island? Are they pardoned and they leave to go back to Milan? 2025 ETA: Stefano and Trinculo go back with Prospero et al, but it's not clear what happens to Caliban. I think they just leave him behind.

I'd like to see a stage production of this play, especially the gender-flipped one with Helen Mirren.



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The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book makes me so sad and angry. I can't believe the conservatorship she was put under is any way legal. I'm glad she's back in control of her own life.

Really potent commentary on the sexual double standard, being a woman in the entertainment industry, the legacy of family trauma, and mental illness.



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Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This starts out really slowly. I was bored for about the first hundred pages. Once the book circles down from its aerial view of the family and dives more deeply into each individual character, I found myself hooked.

This is a deeply tragic book. I feel so sorry for most of the characters. Tony is forced to marry someone she doesn't love (even though her family wouldn't acknowledge the pressure they're putting on her) rather than the man she does (although I'm not certain she'd have been happy marrying that guy given the class/wealth disparity between them); then that guy turns out to be a scoundrel and a cheat. The second guy she marries is a lazy good-for-nothing, and her daughter's husband ends up a scoundrel and a deserter. Christian clearly has some sort of mental disorder as well as OCD, but I also think he has autoimmune disorders that would account for the nerve pain he experiences that everyone dismisses.

I ended up really enjoying this despite the slow start.



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3. the future is (a benevolent black hole) by ClassicMelancholy
Stranger Things
Steddie
Slow, happy getting together

standing up the dead by heartofwinterfell
Stranger Things
Max/Lucas, blink-and-you'll-miss-it Steddie
Max and Eddie dimension hopping post-Vecna. I love how things change in each world they visit.

1. We went to see the Minecraft movie, and I was thoroughly entertained. It's the first movie I've seen in the theater since the pandemic. I'd forgotten how unnecessarily loud they play the film. Jason Mamoa steals the show. His character is just so funny and pathetically endearing, and his interactions with Jack Black (who Josh says treats the whole movie like a Tenacious D video) are *chef's kiss*. They both clearly had a great deal of fun making this movie.

Of course, as soon as I got home, I checked AO3, and fandom is not letting me down with the Steve/Garrett (I didn't read any of them because they appeared to all be written by 12 year-olds, and I haven't had time to dig through for the gold), but fandom is letting me down with the Garrett meets Eddie Stranger Things crossover. LOL I mean, Garrett has the 80s metal hair and clothes and he's wearing eyeliner and he is hot as fuck; I could stand to read some Stranger Things crossover action. LOL

I know this was not intended as such, but I considered it my own personal SGA Easter egg when Garrett tells everyone he's going to watch their six. <3

2. I bought the latest book in the Southern Reach trilogy and realized about 20 pages in that I really needed to go back and read them all from the beginning to truly get the best experience.

( spoilers for the entire Southern Reach trilogy )

3.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Funny, sweet, and a guaranteed delight for any cat lover.

I always enjoy Scalzi's writing, and this is no exception.



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1. Fiona and I have been re-watching She-Ra; our first watch was long enough ago that she really doesn't remember much of the show. Y'all, I had forgotten how fucking gay this show is right from the gate, and it is delightful. This is no Korrasami walking through a portal in the last frame. Adora and Catra are IN LOVE from episode one. Scorpia is fucking gone on Catra, and her feelings for Catra are explicitly compared to Seahawk's romantic feelings for Mermista. I love it so much. Scorpia was my favorite character the first time around, and that hasn't changed; I keep wishing Catra would pull her head out of her ass and love Scorpia back.

2. I have been listening to music again. I don't know why, but after I had Dylan, I stopped listening to music. I mean, I'd have the radio on in the car, and we'd listen to albums on long trips, but I stopped really caring about and listening to music. Mostly I would listen to NPR and classic rock playing the same songs over and over again. I'm not exactly sure what triggered that shift; when I was pregnant with Dylan, music actively annoyed me (IDK why; such a bizarre thing), and then after they were born, I was just out of the habit.

Ever since we got Fiona a laptop for Christmas, she has been getting into music--mostly the music Dylan likes but also finding some on her own. So I've been playing a bunch of music for Fi so she can figure out what she likes. I started playing NIN's The Fragile album, which she hated. "This sounds like a DJ, mom," which okay. Clearly she does not know what a DJ is. LOL She also hated The Barenaked Ladies except for "If I Had a $100000000." She barely tolerated Moby, and then I hit the jackpot with Tori Amos. She also really liked Temple of the Dog (Chris Cornell's early album before Soundgarden).

Oh, I had forgotten how much I love Tori Amos. It's like she somehow saw right into the heart of me for a lot of those songs, especially the ones on Little Earthquakes. It feels good to be listening to music again.

3.

every night my mind is running around her by magneticwave
Stranger Things
El/Dustin, Mike/Lucas, Jonathan/Nancy/Steve
This is borderline cracky and incredibly funny.

a revival by hatsandapoodles
Stranger Things
Steve/Eddie
A lot of people die in the mall fire. Including Steve Harrington. Eddie doesn't care, until he does. Featuring- falling in love with the memory of a dead boy, too many exorcisms, Robin Buckley's love of radical zines, and a heavy dose of religious trauma.

when you shine, you’re a hilltop mansion (so how’d you lose the light?) by actuallymaxie
Stranger Things
Steve/Eddie
So, Steve runs away after Vecna and spends ten years homeless and pitiful, and it's not super believable that he would do this, but I love it so much because he is miserable and sad and it makes me cry and cry and cry, which is my favorite thing to do while reading fanfic. LOL

1. Fiona has walking pneumonia. Poor kiddo. :( She had a respiratory thing about three weeks ago (not COVID, flu, or strep), and it settled into her lungs. She's okay, but it breaks my heart hearing her cough.

2. About a month ago, Dylan started having an autoimmune flare up and has been experiencing fatigue so bad they are having trouble going to class and completing school work. There's some question of whether they'll be able to finish out the semester. They got tested at urgent care for mono, covid, flu, vitamin deficiencies and just basic cbc--all of which are fine, of course. We went to the GP today and got them tested for Hashimoto's, celiac, lyme, and a few other things. I'm not expecting any of these except the Hashimoto's and celiac to potentially come back positive. I hate that my 22 year old kid is going to have to figure out how to live hurting and tired all the time. I can hardly stand it and I'm 45. It's really not fair.

3. I got a pack of the Pentel Mattehop pens and they are awesome. The color is so saturated.

4.
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an enormous brick of a book--almost 800 pages--and at first it wasn't grabbing me. I was reading it in a desultory kind of way, 2 pages here and 3 pages there, and suspected it was going to take me months and months to finish as a result. The book is divided into four sections, and once I got to the end of section one and realized that each section is about the same set of events told from the perspective of a different narrator and each subsequent section reveals that the previous narrator was mistaken in some of their conclusions about those events, I was riveted. There was squealing at one point.

This takes place during Restoration England, and I think I would have enjoyed this book even more if I was more familiar with that historical time period; I'm a 19th century gal, through and through. In addition to the plot, I enjoyed reading about 17th century ideas about medicine, philosophy, and religion.



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5. From Vecna to Van Nuys (And Back Again) by EddieSpaghetti
Steve/Eddie
Is the amount of miscommunication and hiding feelings in this fic utterly ridiculous? Yes, yes, it is. Do I eat it up with a spoon anyway? Yes, yes, I do. (The fic does offer a reasonable explanation for it, though.)

start by pulling him out of the fire by pricklywhicket
Steve/Eddie
Oh, my dearly beloved Wayne Munson, I am so glad fandom has given you such rich characterization.

we can't say what we've seen (and we're not little children) by fivecenturiesverse
Erica Sinclair gen
This is my fierce bb Sinclair struggling in the aftermath of Vecna. Love her.

ETA:

can’t bear it alone by loveinhawkins
Steve/Eddie, Dustin
Steve whump

1. I have had an awful migraine this week; the temperatures were in the 80s last week and now they're in the 20s. Weather changes are one of my migraine triggers. Also, I don't think Ubrelvy is as effective as Nurtec, but my insurance won't cover Nurtec anymore. I mostly feel okay today, though, so hopefully the migraine won't flair back up again and is actually gone.

2. an eye for an by pukner
Stranger Things
Steve/Eddie
This is a deliciously dark and fucked up story. No HEA here.

3. I'm a little more than 100 pages into Stranger Things fic sorted by kudos. Some more trivia:

There's been a teensy, tiny bit of Nancy/Steve sprinkled throughout, but the majority of the het is background Lucas/Max and or Mike/El with a major slash pairing, Chrissy/Eddie, and Steve/Nancy/Jonathan.

Once I hit about page 70, I started seeing a lot of alpha/beta/omega fic; they were very few and far between before that.

4. Somebody needs to make a Stranger Things vid to The Barenaked Ladies song "Grade 9."