Still working on finishing the novel! I’m now one (!!!!) chapter away from finishing it. I have, however, committed to reading poetry at a local event in November, so now I need to work on that. While I work on those, here are my faves from September (aka Virgo season, best season).

Books

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Machineries of Empire #1)

Jdksalfjda I know I’m 9999 years late to how amazeballs this series is but asdfklasjfkl;aj. I know some people really struggled with the world-building, but I didn’t, so YMMV. Personally, I really loved his conception of “calendars,” or how certain actions are capable under certain conditions. I found it a pretty tangible metaphor (not sure if that’s the right choice) for the systems we live under.

Reasons I loved it:

• Lee’s imagination is downright devious in the best kinda way.
• Despite how serious the topic is, there are excellent moments of levity and hilarity: machines make fanvids, footsoldiers love their soap operas, and assassin bosses love to knit.
• Tons of LGBTQ characters
• power play
• I will now be signing off all my letters as yours in calendrical heresy
• women who swallow bitterness to survive and make a better future are my weakness

Shoutout to Lee also writing fanfic of his own stuff. Special Assignment is amazing (unsurprisingly I ship Cheris/Jedao, lmao) which was prompted by sartorias no less!

In conclusion, I need this to become a TV series. Preferably with Tatiana Maslany levels of mind-blowing acting. Can you imagine the two actors who play Cheris and Jedao having to mimic each other?? (Daniel Day Kim as Jedao, k thnx pls bye).

Dance

“90 Days,” Sophie & Marko, choreography by Talia Favia, SYTYCD S16

I’ve rewatched this a number of times now, and I’m disappointed it didn’t get an encore performance in SYTYCD’s season finale. There’s something so… tightly contained? Abandoned? Controlled (IDK what’s up with the vaguely harness-like costumes)? I love it.

Music

Mahalia’s I Wish I Missed my Ex

I love breakup songs. I’ve also enjoyed her songs Square 1 and the dancing in the music video for Do Not Disturb.

Steven Universe the Movie’s Happily Ever After

Pearl’s part in Happily Ever After gets me every time. “Excuse me, B-a-s-s spells bass” is the most perfectionist Virgo shit ever.

Steven Universe the Movie’s Independent Together

I lost my shit when I saw Steg. Also who doesn’t love Giant Woman Opal, or a song that’s in their range to sing? Really though, I love the message of the song.

Short Fiction

The Weight of a Thousand Needles by Isabel Canas

The prose is gorgeous, and this is the kind of fairy tale I love the most. Beautiful, painfully tender, and it taps into that old part of our brains who love the fairy tales of adventure, terror, romance, and freedom.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try, Again by Zen Cho

I laughed at loud while reading Cho’s The True Queen, and I did with this novelette too. Had people told me this story involved the imugi falling in love with a female physicist, I would’ve read this 1000% faster. Also, the fact that the Way the imugi is studying is Physics is amazing.

If you enjoy it, don’t forget to check out the short sequel Cho wrote as well. I died at the JSTOR reference.

The Hundredth House Had No Doors by Laurie Penny

This hooked me from the get-go with its language. But the witty narrator is what really sold me, especially the line from the right hand woman “you gave me no name, of cours eyou’re going about this wrong.”